The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-09-01
TO HUNT SEA ELEPHANTS.
TAXIDERMIST OF MUSEUM OF
 NATURAL. HISTORY
Will Spend Several Months on the Des- oIate Island of Kerguelen--WiH Also Collect Specimens of Antarcticn.

the map as pin prick, but is actually ninety miles long and fifty wide.
 Kerguelen is sterile and not single human being finds sustenance on it's uninviting rocks, save now and then, when some storm battered Whaler braves the threatening breakers of the open roadsteads to fill water casks. In the breeding season whaers sometimes land detachments of hunters on the famous Long Beach, where under the shadow of vast glacier the last sur yiving herds of the sea elephants bel low and slash each other with their short, vicious tusks, ripping great holes through the tough hide and blubber an and often simplifying the work of the hunters.
 Here in this desolate wilderness, a faxidermist, member of the staff of the American Museum of Natural History, will spend from three to six moths during the coming year, with no com panion and no diversion other than the collecting and preservation of his specimens.
 The Museum of Natural History. in conjunction with the Brooklyn 1nstotute of Arsts and Sciences, is financing the expedition of one, which will go to sev- eral other little known islands, and Southe Africa as well as Kerguelen. The Botanical Gardens and the au- thoritles of the Geological Park will also have a hand in hte undertaking, inasmuch as some of the speciemns to be secured will ultimately go to them. The taxidermist, whose name is A. J. Klein, is not only to secure skins for the two museums, but also live speci- mems and samples of the scanty flora of Kerguelen. This last will probably not be difficult undertaking As contem- plated the expendition will sail about the first of September from New Bed- ford, on the whaler Daisy, Capt Cleve- land, who has made g number of voy ages to Kerguelen, and is fairly well acquainted with the island. In speak ing of the expedition and its object to- day, Dr. Bumpus, director of the Mus cum of Natural History, said:
 Our principal reason for sending MT. Klein out to Kerguelen and the adioin- ing islands is to increase our collection of Antarcatica We have at present the finest, most complete collection of Arc tic faunc and flora in the world, so that if any European wishes to study up the subject he has got tos come to New York and look over the contents of our museum. Now we are anxious to secure an equally complete collection of Antarctica MT. Klein has orders to secure specimens of everything he can find, and particularly, of course, of the great sea elephants. They are hard to get at and are becoming rarer every X day, but this sea captain who is go- to take him out has been visiting the island years after the oil of the ele- p4saa4ts, and we expect that he can reprlt him on the right track. He will probab- ly be gone about eighteen month.
 MT. Klein is slender young fellow about twenty-two years old. Although one of the youngest members of the museum staff, he has seen considerable service.
 Yes" he said with a taught. Tin off again-to the other side of the world this time. We are not just sure when I am to get away. because the whal- ing captain isn't even sure himself how soon his vessel will be ready; but I hope 1t will be by the first of next month. I'm afraid I'll have to go alone though I've put In a requisition for per mission to hire a mate, when I stop off in South Africa, on the way out, but l rather doubt whether they'll let me funds, you know However, I dare say I'll get along all right There aren't any ferocious beasts on the island-un- less you include the sea elephants, and they aren't likely to get me. I'm taking along an eght-milimetre sporting Mouser, besides, a shotgun, and I've never yet struck the animal, no matte how thick its hide, that could stand one of those steel expanding bullets.
 Naturally, the worst time will be while I'm alone. I expect to put in three months on Kerguelen and the rest of the time I'll be In South Africa and on couple of other islands in the Antarctic regions I'm to visit. Alto gether, I'll be gone year and a half. after South Africa, I'll go direct to Kerguelen' and the whaler will drop me there with six months provisions that's against the possibility that some thing might happen to her, you know. But I'll be able to bring down all the birds can eat, so there won't be much danger of starving, in any event. As there are no maps of Kerguelen worth anything, I'll have to put in some time exploring. For one thing, there's 8 report that one of the many volcanoes on the island is active and I'm to in. yestigate that. There are many peaks that have been distinctly volcanic il the past, so it won't be an easy under. taking.
 "This morning we received a letter From an old whaling captain, who hal heard of the expedition and who knows the place. He says he saw the skeleton of some great beast, presumably whale. which, from from measurement of ncertain bones he gives, must hav' been all of 100 feet long. I'll have t look that up. If I could get it for thu museum, it would certainly be grea thing. My chief endeavor will be direct ed towards securing skings of the sei elephants. They are a sort of walrus without such long tusks, and Kerguel en is about the only place where the. can be found nowadays, especially sine the whalers have taken to killing then for their blubber. There Is one plac there, so whalers tell me, called tn Long Beach. where they herd in breed
 H. H. =