no NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



with snow and ice, with the aurora borealis or the 

 aurora australis ; nevertheless, the exception proves 

 the rule, and in this case there are two exceptions. 



The Monac/ms albiventer is a seal which inhabits 

 the Mediterranean ; while the Jamaican or West 

 Indian species inhabits the warm waters of the 

 Caribbean Sea. 



The Jamaica seal ( Monachus tropicalis) measures 

 about ten feet in length. The muzzle is broad, 

 with slit-like nostrils separated by a slight depres- 

 sion and fringed by long flexible whiskers. The 

 vaulted cranium would seem to denote considerable 

 intelligence ; the eyes, large and full, are said to 

 be of a crimson hue during life; as in all true seals, 

 there is no external ear. The tongue is bifid at the 

 tip, and the teeth interlock like the jaws of a steel 

 trap. The fore feet alone are provided with true 

 nails, though rudiments persist on the hind ones. 

 The ofeneral colour of the West Indian seal is black 

 or ashy grey, and the weight of one which recently 

 died in the New York Aquarium was 360 pounds. 

 Young animals are of a beautiful soft grey colour, 

 deepening into blackish brown on face and limbs ; 

 the lower lip, chest, and abdomen are dirty white. 



Becoming yearly rarer, if not tending to actual 

 extinction, the Jamaica seal occurs northward off 

 the coast of F"lorida, westward in the sea between 

 Florida and Yucatan ; other limits are : — eastwards, the 

 Bahama Islands, southwards lat. 12^^. It is sparingly 



