THE PROBOSCIS-SEAL, OR SEA-ELEPHANT. 1J3 



wicked and cruel man, amused himself with breaking her teeth 

 with the end of an oar every time the poor creature opened 

 her mouth. Steller, that talented observer of the seals of the 

 northern hemisphere, has recounted some curious details re- 

 specting the same signs of grief which a species of northern 

 seal (Otaria urtina) also exhibits. A female happened to be 

 beaten by one of the males : c This unhappy creature,' says 

 Steller, f crept before him like a worm, she kissed him (e.v- 

 osculabatur), and shed such abundance of tears, that they 

 flowed down her chest, as if from a vessel. ' 



" In the massacres of which we have been speaking, there is 

 a circumstance which takes away from the character of ge- 

 nerosity by which the proboscis-seal is distinguished, and 

 which seems entirely opposed to the principle that maintains 

 these animals united together in a family, — it is the cold in- 

 difference which they at that time manifest towards each 

 other : not only, indeed, is every attempt at mutual defence 

 abandoned, but those even which survive seem not to perceive 

 the work of destruction which is going on around them. 

 When the blows which they receive are not immediately mor- 

 tal, and they feel themselves severely wounded, instead of 

 returning to the sea, they drag themselves inland, as far as 

 their powers will enable them ; there they rest at the foot of 

 a tree, and remain till they expire. This remarkable habit, 

 which we before mentioned when speaking of the diseases of 

 the sea-elephant, is also observed in the sea-lion of the North 

 (Phoca jubata) ; which, when it finds itself mortally wounded 

 in the sea, quits that element to die on the land. Krachen- 

 ninikow has made the same observation on the seals of Kam- 

 schatka. However easy and prompt may seem the manner 

 in which the English fishermen slay the sea-elephants, it is 

 not the most expeditious nor the most simple ; they practise 

 it rather with a view of causing an effusion of blood, in 

 order to improve the oil which they prepare. In fact, were 

 it not that navigators have repeated the observation on almost 

 every species of seal, without excepting that which we have 

 been describing, one should hardly be tempted to believe that 

 a few blows, nay, sometimes a single blow of a stick forcibly 

 applied to the end of the nose, is sufficient to kill them in an 

 instant. The ancients were long ago aware of the slight 

 tenure on which the seals held their existence. 



' Non hami penetrant Phocas, ssevique tridentes .... 

 In caput incutiunt, et circum tempora pulsant .... 

 Nam subita pereunt capitis per vulnera morte.' — Oppianus. 



" The capture of these animals," says Frezier, w is attended 

 with little difficulty ; they are easily overtaken on shore, and 

 are killed by a single blow on the nose." 



