200 BRITISH MAMMALS 



sea-coasts of England, Wales, and Ireland as tame as dogs and 

 as harmless. When our grandchildren awake to the knowledge 

 of what they have lost, they ought to take the ashes of those 

 ministers and permanent officials who never raised a finger to 

 stop the destruction of British Mammalia, and scatter them 

 abroad with every sign of loathing and contempt. 



The food of the common seal consists in the main of fish, 

 crustaceans, molluscs, starfish, sea porcupines, and occasionally 

 sea gulls and other wildfowl. 



The distribution of the common seal is practically circumpolar. 

 It is found on the eastern and western shores of the North 

 Atlantic, and on both coasts of the North Pacific. To the 

 southward it reaches as far as the north coasts of the Mediterranean 

 (where, however, it is very scarce), and on the American side as 

 far as the coasts of New Jersey. In the Pacific it extends south- 

 wards to California on the one hand and Kamshatka on the other. 

 It is common along the coasts of Spitzbergen and Greenland. 

 On the Danish coast of Greenland something like 300,000 are 

 killed annually, the Danish Government having no more regard 

 than the British for the preservation of interesting creatures. In 

 the waters surrounding the British Islands the common seal was 

 a hundred years ago very abundant. It was even foolish enough 

 once to visit Brighton within the memory of people now living. 

 Naturally impertinences of this kind on the coasts of Hampshire, 

 Sussex, Kent, and Essex were promptly punished, and it is 

 probably never seen now on the English coast except off Cornwall, 

 Northern Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Cumberland. It is 

 still common all round the coasts of Ireland and of West and 

 North Wales, and Northern-eastern and Western Scotland, the 

 Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides, and the great islands off the coast of 

 North Britain. It should (if our rulers had the slightest interest 

 in unproductive science) long ago have been placed on the 

 protected list. As it is, its destruction and that of other seals 

 and sea lions makes an excellent subject for a Mansion House 

 jest by modern statesmen. 



