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Show 14fi PROF. W. H. FLOWER ON THE ELEPHANT SEAL. [Jan. 4, The skull was presented by Mr. Herbert Mansel, at the kind suggestion of Mr. F. Coleman, Secretary of the Falkland-Islands Company, who has made such excellent use of his opportunities in connexion with these islands to advance our knowledge of their zoology. Mr. Mansel has been good enough to furnish me with the following information about the animal from which the skull was obtained : - " I cannot now give you the exact date when the Elephant was killed, but it was sometime in 1879. The particulars of the capture are these. I was riding one afternoon along the south coast of the east island, about 45 miles west of Stanley, the principal settlement, when I perceived what I took to be a long boat turned upside down on the beach. On approaching nearer I discovered it was an enormous Seal asleep. I thought at first it was dead ; but while watching I saw it half-open one eye. I then threw a stone at it; and when struck, it suddenly reared itself up on its flippers to the height, I should think, of 8 or 10 feet, opening its enormous mouth to its widest extent. After this I kept at a respectful distance, pelting him until he thought he had enough of it, and he made slowly for the water, making as much fuss as a large steamer. On going back to the house, I mentioned what I had seen to one of my men (an old inhabitant), who said it must have been an Elephant. He had never seen one, but said he had heard old sealers say they killed them by finding them asleep, giving them a poke in the side, and on their rearing up in the manner described firing into their mouth. He went out the next morning with his gun, and found the animal in the same place, and despatched him in the manner 1 have mentioned. I have been living in the Falkland Islands upwards of five years, and during that time never saw or heard of one having been seen. I may safely say one has not been seen in the Islands for the last ten or twelve years. They were never, I believe, plentiful, and now are extremelv rare, as they were much sought after by the sealers on account of the quantity of oil they produced and the value of it, as it brought a much higher price than the oil procured from other Seals. The Elephant in question measured a little over 21 feet, and must have weighed several tons." In response to further inquiries, Mr. Mansel adds :-" I did not notice the proboscis while the animal was asleep, but when roused it was inflated and very distinct, about a foot in length. The colour was the same as that of most Phocidse, a dirty blue-black" '. It will be observed that the attitude assumed by the animal when disturbed, described by Mr. Mansel, corresponds very much with that of the original figure of the so-called " Sea Lyon " of Anson 2, of Juan Fernandez, upon which Linnaeus founded his Phoca leonina, and the jaws and teeth of which, still preserved in the museum under my charge, prove the identity of the species with that now under consideration. The habit of raising the head and fore part of the body, 1 With regard to tbe occurrence of the Elephant Seal in the Falkland Islands in former times, see Captain C. C. Abbott, P. Z. S. 1868, p. 189. * ' Voyage round the World,' 1748. |