714 MONACHUS? TROPICALIS WEST INDIAN SEAL. 



arid burly, and killed him. He proved to be an aged patriarch, 

 with teeth nearly worn to the stumps, and a hide gashed and 

 seamed with scars, got in many a fierce fight ; and about ten 

 feet in length. 



"'In the scramble which the Seal makes to regain the water, 

 nothing is to be remarked but the violence and impatience 

 with which he jerks his body forward ; but when he plunges 

 from the shore into the sea, it is no small treat to see the sud- 

 denness with which the uncouth animal, so unwieldy and help- 

 less on laud, becomes gracefully alert in the ocean. The com- 

 mand with which he strikes through the water, the velocity 

 with which he cleaves the flood, the ease with which he winds 

 the mazes of the rocks, and dashes forward into the hidden 

 recesses of the deep, are beautifully interesting in a creature 

 looking so essentially a quadruped. When the boat is afloat 

 again, the Seals come trooping out to reconnoitre, At a depth 

 of about three feet they paddle about, gazing up through the 

 clear liquid with an expression of countenance beaming with 

 curiosity and intelligence. They dodge around the boat, occa- 

 sionally asceudiug to the surface, to renew their inspirations of 

 air, and to look upon their island home, to ascertain whether 

 they may return thither and be at rest. 



" 'A grown-up cub about four feet long had been taken by 

 the people. One Seal w^as observed more persevering in her 

 watchfulness and assiduity to regain the shore, than the rest. 

 This was conjectured to be the dam of the slaughtered young 

 one. The maternal instinct did not exhibit any stronger 

 emotion than this anxious vigilance. The young one was suffi- 

 ciently grown to be no longer dependent on the mother. Had 

 it been still sacking, there was enough to show that the parental 

 passion would have merged fearlessness into fury, and inquie- 

 tude for the safety of its young, into unsparing vengeance for 

 its fate. 



'"Without doing more than referring to Weddell's observa- 

 tion, that the jaw of the Seals he describes was so powerful in 

 the agonies of death as to grind stones into powder, it seemed, 

 from the condition of the teeth of some eight that were taken 

 during the time Mr. Wilkie's party were on the Pedros, that 

 their strength is exercised in more laborious work than crush- 

 ing the bones of fishes. The opinion that the more experienced 

 fishermen expressed was, that they fed as generally on mollus- 

 cous animals as on fish, and that their teeth suffered much wear 



