SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



to burst their bonds,— a pitiable state of af- 

 fairs, if one did not know that this peculiar 

 manacled arrangement of the hind legs forms 

 almost a screw-propeller, which has given the 

 seals such mastery in the water that they 

 excel in speed even the fish, the real denizens 

 of the sea. It is difficult to be both a specialist 

 and an all-round animal at the same time. 

 Man alone has solved this problem by the use 

 of tools. 



The short stumpy tail of the seal is very 

 little in evidence, but as the animal painfully 

 hauls out on the sand I have sometimes seen 

 it erected, perhaps as the result of the hauling 

 efforts, just as the tail of the Eskimo dog is 

 believed to have attained its present lofty 

 position, as contrasted with the horizontal tail 

 of the wolf, from the straining at the sledges. 



One would think that seals with their short, 

 hairy coats and watery environment would be 

 spared the petty annoyances that afflict most 

 birds and beasts, yet such appears not to be 

 the case, judging from the way in which they 

 scratch themselves. The reach of the fore- 

 flipper is bu.t short, yet with these they fre- 

 quently scratch their heads and necks in a 

 yery significant manner. 



168 



