Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

and groans as the ice took the strain of the tide. I went over to look at the coast
around North Point and had a surprisingly good view from one of the rock
buttresses. So far as I could see there were no seal of any species on that stretch of
coast or on floes. On the beach west of Jane Peak were six medium elephants and I
thought it quite likely that these were the sole surviving seals on the west coast, since
on my previous survey there were very few more to the south.
Next day an elephant came up to breathe in the tide crack at Berntsen Point and
submerged again. Then I heard heavy breathing and in the next ‘creek’ saw two
elephants – their heads just above water. They submerged for 3 1 2 min and
reappeared further along the coast. The following day I watched an elephant that
was using the tide-crack as a breathing hole. It floated there staring up at me looking
very serious and surprisingly intelligent, then yawned and submerged slowly. It was
gone with a flick of its tail and a creaking of the ice.
A few days later three elephants hauled out in deep snow near the pool on the
point, but only one remained when I went down after dark and it had changed
position. Clambering over the rocks I heard a curious regular thumping and was at a
loss for an explanation until I saw a black shape moving rapidly across the ice in
spurts of about 20 yards. It was an elephant and moving in a dead-straight line.
When I went along to where it was headed I found it lying in the tide crack; it had
come across from Outer Islet in about 2 min – not bad going for such an ungainly
beast.
After breakfast next day I went to the Point to look for seals and birds, and found
one elephant seal jammed between two ice blocks, where I had left it the previous
night and one out on a floe near the breaking rock. On the ice was a large set of tracks
going out towards Outer Islet, then turning around about 100 yards out. It was the
track of the elephant seal I had seen last night moving across the ice. The tracks
looked like a colossal loop of film – the body track forming the film frames and the
flipper tracks the sprocket holes – and I felt it was worth a photograph as it gave a
good idea of the method of locomotion. Another seal in the cave West of Knife Point
turned out to be an elephant and several other elephants were moving out over the
ice.
On 22 May I walked across the bay ice to Drying Point. It was quite safe now and
about 10 in thick with 2 in of new snow on top of the ice; this short cut made it only a
short stroll now to Elephant Flats and one could avoid the Stone Chute, ascending
which was always a bit of a bind. I counted the seals, 57 in all, and then Derek turned
back and I headed for the next beach. Only two seals were present now, where earlier
there had been over 200. I had meant to cover the entire coastline up to Berryman
Bay but as I had forgotten my snow goggles thought it best to turn back at Balin
Point. Later I found only one seal in the area. It was struggling along a tide crack just
east of the island and frequently breaking through, but it hadn't the sense to leave the
crack for the firm ice. Possibly it saw it as a track to follow.
The succeeding day produced a marked drop in the number of elephants visible
from Drying Point beach and about six were crossing the bay ice eastwards towards
open water. Earlier one mature bull had headed west towards Drying Point and I
watched it move slowly across the bay from Bare Rock; possibly it was returning
from a fishing excursion. Next day when I went down to the point the elephant there
had sunk quite deeply between two ice blocks and its body was badly twisted. It
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