SEA LEOPARD SEALS.❏LARGER IMAGE
SEA LEOPARD SEALS.
❏LARGER IMAGE
TEETH OF THE SEA LEOPARD.
TEETH OF THE SEA LEOPARD.
WEDDELL’SSEAL.[229]—A couple of stuffed specimens and a few skulls of this Seal in the British Museum, and a stuffed specimen in Edinburgh, are the sole material on which this species is founded. Dr. R. Hamilton, in the “Naturalist’s Library,” described the latter as the Leopard Seal (Phoca leopardina, Jameson). Captain Weddell had brought it from the Southern Orkneys, and, according to him, during life the animal is pale greyish above, yellowish beneath, and the back spotted with pale white. Dr. Gray mentions the London male specimen as fulvous, with a blackish-grey line down the back, the female and young corresponding to Captain Weddell’s description. The distinction between this and the last species is barely appreciable from their external coat, such differences as exist being in the skull. Weddell’s Seal, or, as Gray names it, the False Sea Leopard (Leptonyx Weddellii), has a relatively shorter and broader skull, fuller in the brain-pan, largish orbits, and a weak lower jaw. The molars are not tri-cusped; the front one in each jaw is single-rooted, and the rest double-rooted. The Antarctic Expedition brought home skulls, and skins and skulls were afterwards obtained by Captain Fitzroy, R.N., from the River Santa Cruz, Patagonia. Neither they nor Weddell give us any information respecting the life-habits of this animal. It will thus be seen that its geographical area, and especially its geographical relations towards the previous species, are at present uncertain. On account of the peculiarities of cranium and dentition, Gray forms it into a separate genus.
THECRAB-EATINGSEAL,ORSAW-TOOTHSTERRINCK OFOWEN.[230]—The interest in this creature lies probably not so much in the nature of its food as in the greater saw-like character of its molars, which strongly resemble those of the fossil Zeuglodon, an animal of the Whale tribe. The Crab-eating Seal inhabits an undefined area of the Antarctic Seas. Above it is of a nearly uniform olive colour, below and the sides of the face yellowish-white, and there are a few often confluent spots of a light colour on the flanks. The five-toed fore feet, whose wrist is said to be very short, are clawed, but the hind ones are clawless. In number, the teeth agree with the Sea Leopard’s; though the first, second, and third front upper and the first front lower molars are single-rooted, the rest double-rooted. Moreover, nearly all the molar teeth have two or three cusps behind the middle strong conical lobe, while in front there is usually only a single small conical elevation. Thus the hinder border of these molars is considerably more saw-like than in the Sea Leopard. It differs also from the latter both in the lower jaw and upper parts of the cranium, but more particularly in the nasal and facial regions. Little is known with regard to its life-history.
The last three Seals some have considered under three distinct generic names, for reasons already given. If importance be attached to the dentition, this separation is allowable; but on the other hand there are considerable resemblances which others regard as only of specific weight. The generic termStenorhynchus, first used by F. Cuvier in 1824 for the so-called Sea Leopard, and which has been at times indiscriminately applied by different naturalists to all three animals with multi-serrate crowned teeth, but here partially restricted to the first two, is a name well known and still applicable to one or other. Nevertheless, Lamarck, in 1819, had designated a genus of CrabsStenorhynchus, universally accepted, and also in current use up to the present time. Some confusion having thus occasionally resulted, Professor Peters drew attention to the awkwardness of the circumstance, and proposed that the termOgmorhinusshould replaceStenorhynchus, as applied to the Seals; Lamarck’s name having priority being retained for the Crabs. This well exemplifies one among the many difficulties and cross-purposes incident to nomenclature, &c., of Natural History, where, in the vast array of names and facts presented, glaring discrepancies will arise, despite the constant revision of those devoted to its study.
Before closing this chapter, there is one subject which I believe deserves mention, however briefly. The enormous slaughter of the Seal tribe is a matter of serious consideration, if only in a mercantile spirit. Among the sealers, neither sex nor age is spared, and therefore at the present wholesale rate of destruction it is easy to foresee early comparative, if not absolute, extinction of the tribe. Nothing can be clearer than the fact that since the Americans in their Alaska territory have adopted the plan of killing a prescribed number annually of the young and male Seals only, in other words, of protecting the breeding females, the Fur Seals have shown no tendency to diminution, but rather an apparent increase. Nature has her limits, and the Seals have other enemies to contend with besides man. Yet the latter, taking advantage of the maternal affections, and with the aid of deadly firearms and the like, in a certain space of time commits more fatal havoc among them than all their other foes combined. Several persons have urged a close-time. The fact is there are great difficulties in the way of this, for even in well-protected British rivers and fisheries generally, Salmon and others of the finny tribe are caught at forbidden times, in spite of Acts of Parliament and other regulations. Who is to watch the sealers in far-off inhospitable climes? Certainly in the Northern sealing-grounds the departure of the ships could be made somewhat later, as has, indeed, to some extent been done, but of course at the risk of a diminished catch. In the long run beneficial results doubtless will follow. But the plan most applicable to both Northern and Southern Seal-capture would be the insistence of the simple rule ofsparing the breeding females whenever possible. If our merchants at home would take the matter in hand, and, but for a few years, refuse to receive female skins, the sealers would be practically forced, and in fact find it to their benefit, to look to their interests from a more humane point of view.
JAMESMURIE.
JAMESMURIE.