Volume 23, Plate XVI / Mammalia (Mammals)

Proboscis Seal, or Elephant Seal (Female)

Phoca Proboscidea

The Proboscis or Elephant Seal, largest of all the seal tribe, attains twenty to thirty feet, the greyish coarse coat lying in patches like watered silk, the male’s nostrils elongating into a foot-long pendant tube when roused. Mild and docile on shore yet agile at sea, it crawls like a vast bladder of jelly, bellows fearfully and fights bloody combats; it inhabits the southern hemisphere between thirty-five and fifty-five degrees, yielding abundant fine oil.