Page 62 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

40 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
CALIFORNIA ELEPHANT SEAL Photographed on Guadalupe Island by C H. Townsend.
roving sea adventurer will pounce upon the Remnant, and wipe it out of existence for whatever reason may to him seem good.
The California Elephant Seal, (Mirounga angustirostris) — This remarkable long-snouted species of seal was reluctantly stricken from the fauna of the United States several years ago, and for at least fifteenyearsithasbeenregardedastotallyextinct. Lastyear,however
(1911), the Albatross scientific expedition, under the control of Director C. H. Townsend of the New York Aquarium, visited Guadalupe Island, 175 miles oif the Pacific coast of Lower California and there found about 150 living elephant seals. They took six living specimens, allofwhichdiedafterafewmonthsincaptivity. Eversincethattime, first one person and then another comes to the front with a cheerful proposition to go to those islands and "clean up" all the remainder of those wonderful seals. One hunting party could land on Guadalupe, and in one week totally destroy the last remnant of this almost extinct species. To-day the only question is, Who will be mean enough to do it?
Fortunately,thosesealshavenocommercialvaluewhatsoever. The littleoiltheywouldyieldwouldnotpaythewagesofcook'smate. The proven impossibility of keeping specimens alive in captivity, even for one year, and the absence of cash value in the skins, even for museum
purposes, has left nothing of value in the animals to justify an expedition tokillortocapturethem. Nozoologicalgardenorparkdesiresanyof them, at any price. Adult males attain a length of sixteen feet, and females eleven feet. Formerly this species was abundant-in San Christo- bal Bay, Lower California.
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