160
SEALS.
[Chap. VI.
1842
steadying itself by extending its fin-like wingsJan. 11. which alternately touch the ground on the side opposite to the propelling leg. The most successful of our hunters were Mr. Oakley and Mr. Abernethy, as they were also in the capture of the seals which we met with in no great numbers. These were of three kinds: the largest of them is of great size, measuring in length nearly twelve feet, and six feet in circumference, but varying very much in weight according to the condition of the animal; the heaviest we killed weighed eight hundred and fifty pounds, and yielded upwards of sixteen gallons of oil. In the stomach of one which we caught we found twenty-eight pounds weight of fish. With the single exception of a single specimen of a
Sphyræna, they all belonged to a species of the new genus discovered at Kerguelen Island, and named Notothenia by Dr. Richardson.[1] They were in various stages of decomposition: some few, which appeared to have been only just taken, furnished subjects for preservation, and of which careful drawings were made by Dr. Hooker. The average length of this fish, so interesting from the high latitude it inhabits, was six and a half inches, and its weight two and a half ounces; there must therefore have been nearly two hundred individuals contained in the stomach of this seal. As it proved to be a species distinct from- ↑ Zoology of the Voyage of the Erebus and Terror, Part II. p. 8.
