Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-03-06
Home of tho Sea Elephants.

In Harper's magazine. Robert G..
Murphy gives the first account Of his
island of South Georgia, 1900 miles
east of Cape Horn. His account of his
adventures With the sea elephants is
of curious interest:
"They are instinctively ill-tempered
mammals. and seem never to become
accustomed to the society of other
creatures. They snarled, for instance,
altogether unnecessarily. at any poor
familiar penguin which happened TO
walk near them along the beach of
h inlet. From the tent l frequently
saw half-grown bulls wake from peace
full maps and instantly start quarrels
With near neighborS: and the youngest
pups We're quite as likely as their ell
ders to be rearing and humping against
one another. glazing with infantile fe-
rOcity into one another'S eyes. In the
ordinary contests of the bulls, which
seemed to be of Il purely calisthenic
nature. the two champions met closely
and reared up until only the hinder
part of the belly rested on the ground,
and then hurled themselves one against
the other. clashing their breasts and
raking each others thick skinned necks
with their heavy lower canincs. at the
same time flinging their tail ends into
the air. Occasionally they came to Il
clinch by pressing the sides OF their
neckS together. n so took & breathing
spell. All the motions We're clumsy
and numbering; Il good deal of threaten
ing and suffering occurred between the
clashes. and sometimes they merely
rose up on the toes of their fore flip
pers and stood rigidly. with heads held
back and mouths wide open. until each
collapsed from WEAKNESS without a
blow having been struck. Thoroughly
angry bulls. however. clamped jaws ON
their rivals. badly decorating one an
others pelts. i saw one big fellow who
had lost q portion OF the wall of his
snout. LII a group of sea elephants were
annoyed. they sometimes gave way to
uncontrolled passion. tarashing about
blindly. biting the ground. running
amuck, and tearing the backs of all
their companions. Generally their tao
tics with regard TO human beings We're
wholly defensive. but occasionally |
met a jealous or -pugnacious bull. who
sought trouble from the start. Once |
observed from a hiding place AN UNI
the cove below my tent and work its
usually fine sea elephant come out of
way up among he ussock hulnmocks.
] wanted it's skeleton for the museum,
but. unfortunately. had left my rifle
aboard the brig. However. as soon as
the lazy animal had found a satisfac-
tory berth and had fallen asleep, l de-
scended all unsuspectingly with "a cam
era and a seal lance. and, after making
ready for a head-On snapshot, | whis-
tied to awaken the brute. The effect
was greater than l had bargained for.
1t opened its eyes casually enough. but
instantly. upon seeing me. it rolled over
with a snort and bounced toward me
so quickly that l had barely time to
avoid the charge. 1 lodged aside but
1T continued to bump along steadily af-
ter me with homicide in its eye. Set
ting the camera OF a hummock. i at
tackled my ardent pursuer with the
lance. and the brute snorted and bel
lowed as it reared two or three feet
above my head and hurled forward it's
me to a pulp: but after perhaps five
minutes of desperate attacking. lung
Ing, lodging and retreating on my part.
the great beast sank down and ex-
1 PRED"