Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/416

He made no attempt to leave the beach until he had been disturbed several times by my tapping him on the trunk. At first he only opened his mouth to the full extent; latterly he raised himself on his fore flippers and swung his after-part round, thus turning his head towards the water; after this, by placing his fore flippers a little forward and drawing his body forward, somewhat like a snail, he was making for the water. A rope was then passed over his head, and fastened to a rock to prevent his getting away. On being lanced behind the fore flipper the blood ran freely, but the animal pressed his flipper several times on the wound and stopped the bleeding, until the flipper was forced from his side; at a low estimate there was three hundred gallons of blood. The length from the tip of the trunk to the end of the hinder flippers was 17 ft. 18 in.; the skin, when spread, measured 18 ft. by 12 ft. He was in low condition as regards blubber, there only being forty gallons. The hide resembles that of the Land-Elephant in colour, and is covered with deep scars from the head to one-half of his length. The skin and skeleton are still here. I think to give the Smithsonian Institute the first refusal, as Mr. Grierson is sending photographs. I will send one of the skeletons, minus the head, which has not been taken.—(Signed) Jas. Smith."

This appears to refer to some lantern-slides of a specimen which were exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Rupert Vallentin, at a meeting of the Linnean Society on June 1st last. According to the official report of that meeting,—"The distribution of this huge Seal on various antarctic and subtropical islands having been traced, Mr. Vallentin's notes on a specimen killed in Stanley Harbour were read. It measured 18 ft. 11 in. from the end of the trunk to a straight line between the two hinder extremities; the trunk, produced by the inflation of a loose tubular sac of skin above the nostrils, is present only in the male, and measures, when fully extended, 12 in. from the gape. No fresh facts were made known concerning the nature of the food of this animal: described by some writers as herbivorous, like the Manatee; by others, as feeding on Mollusca and Crustacea, like the Walrus. In this case the stomach was empty, with the exception of a large number of Nematode worms, specimens of which were exhibited."

In the late Prof. Moseley's "Notes by a Naturalist on the 'Challenger'" will be found considerable information regarding this animal. It has almost entirely deserted the island of Tristan da Cunha. Four specimens were found on landing at Kerguelen's Land, where the species is probably common. On Heard Island there were strewn thousands of skeletons of the "Sea-Elephant."

"The bones lay in curved lines, looking like tide lines, on either