WEDDELL'S SEAL. 21 



when the trail of a seal ou the snow is examined there may or may not be, on one side or 

 the other, a mark showing where one fore flipper did actually but quite accidentally touch 

 the snow. Under all ordinary conditions, therefore, it is seen that this seal has quite 

 given up the use of its limbs on land or ice, a point in which it differs from several 

 of the other true earless seals, and a point which suggests that a very long period must 

 have elapsed since it enjoyed the power of using its limbs as an ordinary quadruped. 



I mention below, in connection with Lobodon, that the extremity of fear will 

 revive a method of more rapid progression which closely resembles the canter of 

 a four-legged animal ; but this re-awakening of a power that must have long lain 

 dormant was never once noticed in the case of Leptonychotes. I do not think that the 

 limbs in Leptonychotes were ever seen to be called into play in accelerating the rate of 

 movement, nor was any other method of progression noticed than the hitching, loping, 

 or " looper caterpillar " method of which I have already spoken, a method that reminded 

 one of nothing so much as the progress of the caterpillar of one of the Geometer moths. 

 If pressed to exert itself, this method of progression was not changed, though the 

 movements became very flustered, and then it was a common thing to see the head 

 held high in the air that the pursuer might l)e kept in sight, the seal watching him 

 with wide open eyes along its back and shoulders, instead of turning its head side- 

 ways, first one way and then the other, as is usually the case when the animal is less 

 seriously frightened. 



In the ordinary course of events it required a considerable amount of interference 

 to disturb the equanimity of a Weddell's Seal. Having no enemies outside the water, 

 it gazes with blank amazement upon man and dog, with difficulty realising that either 

 can have the power to hurt. There was always, however, some risk of its swinging 

 round to bite, and this the dogs soon learned ; for the bite of a full-grown seal was 

 by all means to be avoided ; the seal's movement in this respect is very quick, and 

 the grip being followed by a wrench would certainly tear the flesh from the bones'^ 



Above all else this seal is an adept at rolling sideways out of reach from danger, 

 but in doing so it is merely following the instinct which forl)ids it to expose its more 

 defenceless extremity towards the enemy. There seems to be no need for it to practise 

 any but the most labour-saving methods of movement out of the water. Having no 

 enemy on the ice when man and his dogs are absent, its needs for travel at the 

 worst of times are not exacting. It lives within reach of some permanent crack or 

 opening in the floe, which may be either a tide crack along the shore, an opening whicli 

 never fails, or a line of weakness running out for miles from some cape or headland. 

 Occasionally, in ice many seasons old, one may find a l)low-hole domed over by the 

 frozen breath, as in fig. 25, p. 38 ; and this may be still in use, though the ice be five or 

 six feet through. Only on a very few occasions have we seen a track prolonged for any 

 distance in the snow. In one exceptional case a track, made by a seal which had 

 apparently lost its way, led fairly straight for about half a mile from one area of 

 pressure ridges across a l)ay of unbroken ice to another area off' a small headland, where 



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