170 THE PROBOSCIS-SEAL, OR SEA-ELEPHANT. 



English fisherman (soon after their first arrival on the island,) 

 having taken a liking to one of these Mammalia, prevailed 

 upon his comrades to abstain from injuring his prot£g£e. For 

 a long time in the midst of the work of slaughter, this seal 

 lived peaceful and respected. Every day the fisherman ap- 

 proached to caress it, and in a few months it was so com- 

 pletely tamed, as to permit its master to ride on its back, or 

 thrust his arm down its throat ; it would come to him when 

 called ; and in a word, this docile and affectionate animal did 

 everything for its protector, and suffered him to do what he 

 pleased with it without manifesting any sign of offence. Un- 

 fortunately this man having had a slight altercation with one 

 of his comrades, the latter, in a cowardly and ferocious spirit 

 of revenge, killed his adversary's adopted favourite. — The sea- 

 elephant, however, is not the only seal which is distinguished 

 by a character of intelligence and gentle bearing : most of the 

 other species of the same family participate in this disposition; 

 and authors have preserved many traits similar to that we have 

 just related. But peaceable and good-natured as the pro- 

 boscis-seals undoubtedly are, we may be permitted to doubt 

 whether they are sufficiently so to suffer the treatment which 

 Perouse asserts they experienced from his crew. f They 

 mounted/ says he, ' on these animals as upon horses, and 

 when they would not move quick enough, they goaded them 

 on with their knives, piercing and cutting their skin/ 



" With respect to the term of life of these seals, the English 

 have not been able to give me any very precise notions ; but 

 they are inclined to believe, from the great numbers which 

 are seen to die a natural death on the shores, that the average 

 period of their existence does not extend beyond twenty-five 

 or thirty years. We have thus an additional proof of the ge- 

 nerally admitted rule, that ' the duration of life is propor- 

 tionate to the period of development, being so much the 

 shorter as the latter is more rapid.' 



" The most remarkable circumstance attending the period 

 which terminates the career of the animals of which we have 

 been speaking, is the following. As soon as they feel them- 

 selves sick, they quit the waves, advance into the interior of 

 the island further than ordinary, lie down at the foot of some 

 shrub, and there remain until they expire, never attempting 

 to return to the sea, but seeming desirous to quit life in the 

 same element in which they first received it. What makes the 

 fishermen conclude that death in this case is natural, is, that 

 without exhibiting any trace of wound or contusion, they 

 seem to suffer greatly, and in fact expire at the end of a few 

 days. Stellcr has made similar observations on the seals of 

 the northern seas. 



