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

couldn't move and there was nothing I could do to help it. Two other elephants
crossed over to Drying Point; one from its tracks had difficulty in crossing the tidecrack
onto the bay ice and floundered for about 15 yards before succeeding. The
Drying Point beach appeared to have only a few scattered seals, perhaps 20 in all.
Unfortunately I was not able to find time to get away from base to make a count. The
seal on Berntsen Point was quite obviously in pain and I decided to have another
attempt to get it out, so we went down with blocks and tackle and ice axes. After
much effort we had cleared away several ice blocks and eased the position of the
animal, which was a relatively young but mature bull, about 12 ft long. We lifted its
flippers from under it and tried to hoist it out by the tail, but the tackle slipped. I put
in a cattle ear mark on the hind-flipper and we left it in a much easier position, from
which it should be able to extricate itself.
On 2 June I made a seal count in Borge Bay and around to Stygian Cove. Derek
came with me, though he forecast a blizzard. We crossed Elephant Flats and made
straight for Stygian Cove in swirls of snow. It was already warmer than when we set
out and our view was somewhat limited by the drifting snow which heralded the
blizzard proper. From Stygian Cove, where the elephants were reduced to a smother
in the eastern corner, we returned around the coast, while the weather steadily
deteriorated. By the time we reached the Flats again conditions were quite
unpleasant and we reached the hut looking, doubtless, like two ‘abominable
snowmen’. Altogether I counted 128 seals – a significant drop in numbers. None of
them had completed their moult.
Two days later there were two elephants on Outer Islet and the tracks of another
across the ice. Next day the two were still there and we could hear elephants roaring
and fighting, but the snow limited visibility. Over the next few days there were
usually from 9-16 elephants on Drying Point beach.
On 11 June I decided to visit the other side of the island to see if there were any
seals left there. I went anti-clockwise and met Derek at 1.20 pm as he was coming
back from geologising at North Point. There were some seals ahead, which I wanted
to look at, so he turned back with me. Three large bulls were in the cove south of the
North Point cove and two on the slopes above. We followed one seal's tracks and
found that it had been doing some mountaineering! It had evidently started from the
cove east of North Point and climbed uphill to a point about 150 ft above; there it had
spent the night in a ‘bivouac’ and slid or rather skied downhill from there in the
morning. I say ‘skied’ because from the tracks it had been stemming with its body
and at one point had made a perfect turn! The hind-flippers had been used in places
as a brake. This seal showed a high degree of directive intelligence; the tracks
showed that he had taken several routes towards the shore, turning back each time
when he reached the brink of a steep slope. As we watched he made yet another
exploratory trip, humping downhill, stopping above a considerable ice cliff, looking
around and then turning back uphill.
On 17 June I received an exasperating message from Bill Sladen re Professor
Richard Harrison's specimen ‘requirements’, pointing out – patronizingly – aspects of
which I was well aware, making assumptions that were quite unjustified; also asking
me to collect a lot of seal material for him. He hadn’t been at all helpful when I was
starting my project and the whole thing was written in such a superior tone that I
sent a very snooty signal in return. On reflection perhaps better not to have sent it!
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