THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



island of the Malay Archipelago) by the Dutch East 

 India Company for eleven thousand, dollars in 1694. 

 Checked regarding its shape and size by many auth- 

 orities, it measured two feet in diameter and weighed 

 exactly one hundred and eighty-two pounds. Its subse- 

 quent history is obscure — the Company probably broke 

 it up and made a large profit. While it was still intact the 

 Duke of Tuscany offered fifty thousand crowns for it — an 

 immense sum in those times. 



Classification of creatures of the sea has always been 

 more or less arbitrary, and a matter of convenience. 

 Some animals might be classed with those in a particular 

 group for excellent reasons, yet might, for equally good 

 reasons, be placed in another group. The seals and wal- 

 ruses have many characteristics which separate them 

 completely from whales. Seals are of the order Carnivora, 

 and so are walruses, but some authorities include both in 

 the sub-order Pinnipedia, while others separate them and 

 place the walrus in a family of its own, the Trichechidae. 



It is all very confusing to the layman, who sometimes 

 finds it hard to understand why seals, as sea creatures 

 possessing resemblances to whales, should be sharply 

 separated from whales and classified with cats, dogs, 

 lions and bears, in the order Carnivora^ despite the fact 

 that many whales are carnivorous and have the rudi- 

 ments of land mammals in their structures. 



Again, both seals and walruses are pinnipeds — having 

 feet resembling fins — and one might feel inclined to agree 

 with those authorities who keep them together in the 

 Pinnipedia sub-order. There is one way in which we can 

 cut this perplexing knot and get the whale, the seal and 

 the walrus together into one simple classification : They 

 form a group which distinguishes them from other 

 creatures of the sea, for they are all water-living mam- 

 mals : land creatures which have adapted themselves to 

 the sea. Seals and walruses find a place in this chapter 

 (despite the fact that they are not of the whale's order, 



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