The Newly Discovered Elephant Seals. 
Wf. have already spoken of the expedition on 
the Albatross sent out by the American Museum 
of Natural History, and under command of Dr. 
Charles H. Townsend, Director of the New York 
Aquarium, of its extraordinary success in dis¬ 
covering a herd of elephant seals, of the capture 
of six of the young animals which were sent 
from San Diego by freight to New York and 
are now to be seen in the Aquarium here. A 
few weeks ago Forest and Stream printed a 
photograph of these young elephant seals. 
This animal is one of the true seals, and thus 
is more like the ordinary 
harbor seal of our coasts 
than it is like walrus, sea 
lion or fur seal. On the 
other hand it is like the 
eared seals in the fact 
that the male greatly ex¬ 
ceeds the female in size. 
There are two species, 
one found only in the 
Antarctic Ocean and ad¬ 
jacent sea, while the 
other occurs on the west 
coast of North America, 
but did not reach south 
of 24 degrees north lati¬ 
tude. The two forms are 
very much alike. The 
largest males reach eigh¬ 
teen or twenty feet in 
length, and specimens are 
said to have been taken 
which measured twenty- 
five feet. The northern 
form has for years been 
supposed to be extinct, 
and we can fancy hardly any greater zoological 
surprise than to have discovered a considerable 
herd, as did Dr. Townsend. We recall that 
about the year 1878 some sealer discovered a 
small group of these animals on the Southern 
California coast, perhaps the Santa Barbara 
Islands, and killed them all. Some young speci¬ 
mens were brought to the Atlantic coast and 
one or two secured by museums. 
In the old days, after whaling became unprofit¬ 
able, through the practical extermination of the 
whale, the whalers from many lands, but espe¬ 
cially from the New England ports which had 
furnished generations of whalers, sailed away 
after the fur or the oil of seals—anything to load 
their vessels. 
The story of the extermination of the south¬ 
ern fur seal has often been told, but while the 
elephant seal did not yield a profitable fur, it 
has a thick layer of blubber, which produces 
much oil. In the Antarctic Seas and on the west 
coast of America these animals were slaughtered 
in great numbers, and the herds were so reduced 
that it became unprofitable to make the long 
voyages required to get them. As a consequence 
the sea elephants re-established themselves after 
a time—and not a very long time either. In 1874 
Captain Scammon's book speaks of the sea ele¬ 
phant on Heard’s Island being nearly extermi¬ 
nated, and says: “There were remains of thou¬ 
sands of skeletons here. Bones lay in curved 
lines like long tide lines on either side of the 
plain above the beaches, marking the rookeries 
of old times, and the tracks of the slaughter 
of the sealers.” Yet again, in 1880, we know 
that vessels were sailing from New England for 
Kerguelen, Heard’s Island and the Crozets. 
In the year 1882, Forest and Stream printed 
an account of the adventures of a sealing crew 
cast away on Heard's Island. Their ship went 
aground during a storm, they landed on the 
island, saving some provisions, and in the early 
morning the wind shifted, their ship was blown 
off and went to sea without a crew. During the 
eighteen months that they remained there they 
devoted themselves to killing sea elephants and 
making oil, for they expected to be taken off 
by a companion vessel which had promised to 
look out for them if they were not heard of by 
a certain time. That the sea elephants were 
plenty there, we may feel sure, since the crew 
gathered 500 casks of oil in the time that they 
were there. 
Dr. Townsend having left San Diego in the 
Albatross, Feb. 25, proceeded to Guadalupe Island, 
which lies 250 miles off the coast of San Diego. 
On March 6 the vessel had returned to San Diego 
to announce the result of its cruise, and Dr. 
Townsend’s letter, printed in the Museum Jour¬ 
nal, to whose courtesy we owe also the illustra¬ 
tions of the sea elephants printed herewith, says: 
“Our success at Guadalupe Island was quite be¬ 
yond expectation. In addition to work on the 
birds and plants and various land collections on 
the island, we captured alive six sea elephants 
for the New York Aquarium and the Zoological 
Park, and succeeded in getting four skins and 
two skeletons of adult sea elephants for the 
American Museum. 
“The three old males were monsters sixteen 
feet long with proboscis as long as the head. 
We have one skull two feet long. We wound 
up the young seals in nets so tightly that we 
could handle them like bales. The skins of the 
old bulls were very heavy. Each one flensed 
and salted was packed in a full sized barrel 
which it completely filled and that without the 
skull.” 
Queen Charlotte Island Caribou. 
New York City, April 15 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I note with interest in your issue of 
April 15 the communication of C. de B. Green 
relative to the Queen 
Charlotte Island caribou, 
Rangifer dawsoni. 
Mr. Green’s theory of 
the origin of these cari¬ 
bou may be plausible, but 
it should only be regard¬ 
ed as a speculation. 
The reasons given as 
“conclusive objections” 
against the theory that 
these caribou are de¬ 
scendants from a herd 
on Graham Island be¬ 
fore it was cut off from 
the mainland do not ap¬ 
pear to me to be valid. 
Instead of the Queen 
Charlotte Islands being 
a country of “suita¬ 
bility” as a habitat for 
the genus Rangifer, they 
are in environment, cli¬ 
mate and food supply 
utterly unfit. There are 
not a few examples of 
animals degenerating when forced to remain in 
a habitat distinctly uncongenial to them. On 
these islands the lichen, the favorite food of 
caribou, is extremely limited in supply. The 
intense humidity, the heavy rainfall, the tem¬ 
perature are wholly different from the natural 
conditions under which caribou thrive. These 
factors, together with in-breeding, would surely 
produce degeneration. 
Horses imported to the Falkland Islands in 
1764 ran wild, and Darwin, in 1834, found them 
greatly increased in numbers, but degenerate 
both in size and strength. He attributes the de¬ 
generation to lack of suitable food and humidity. 
On the other hand, cattle introduced into these 
islands improved. Many similar cases of de¬ 
generation might be quoted. It is quite possible 
that caribou once ranged over the whole of 
Graham Island, but gradually dying out, the few 
that remained maintain a restricted range near 
Virago Sound. It may also be true that food 
conditions are not so favorable elsewhere on the 
islands. 
That black bears are abundant on the islands, 
and that wapiti are abundant on Vancouver 
Island are facts not pertinent to the case of 
the caribou. Both the bears and the wapiti find 
abundant food everywhere, and the conditions 
male and female elephant seals. 
!• 
