15 



about the wonders of fish"life. But if what the professor says'be true, tlien such conversation has been only a display of 

 ignorance ; for it appears that porpoises are not fishes at all, but mammals, like our own nobler selves. We can scarcely 

 admire the taste of our porpoise and other cetacean congeners. Sea bathing is no doubt very pleasant in its way, but the 

 giving up of all the charms of life on dry land for a permanent residence in the sea implies a weak or perverted 

 understanding. Perhaps, however, these cetacean perverts have been hard pressed on land, have found competition too 

 keen, and liuve determined to strike out a new line for themselves. If such has l>con the case, th ' ' 



striking warning to those of our own species who tind competition keen, and desire to strike out on new lines of their 

 own. The porpoises, dolphins, whales, &c., have no doubt got what they wanted in the way of food ; they have the ocean 

 full of tish to feed upon, and their superioi brain power enables them to take due advantage of this sea of wealth. But at 

 what a price have they gained their wealth ! From the noble state of normal nianunalocracy they have become degraded 

 almost to the condition of the fish they feed upon. The pursuit of wealth is not without its dangers. 



"l)o you then," we asked the professor, "suppose that porpoises and. other cetaceans are descended from seals? 

 That the line of descent has gone from bear to sea-ljear, from sea-bear to seal, from seal to porpoise, and so on ? " 

 " Proliably the course of descent has been something in that way," he answered, " though it would be more correct to say 

 that it passed from the early ancestors of the bears to the early ancestors of sea-bears, and from these to the ancestors of 

 seals, anil so on through e.\tinct forms, such, for instance, as the fossil zeuglodon, to the early cetacea. 

 But it is necessary to bear in mind that there is a wide gap between the seal and the porpoise. Although 

 the seal cannot use its hind legs for walking, still the limljs are there all complete. I have already pointed 

 out, however, that the integument has bound the feet and tail into one mass. In course of generations, as this 

 mass became more fused together, the limb bones, through want of pliability, w-ould become rather a hindrance 

 than a help ; and so, according to a principle everywhere seen in the animal world, they would be gradually less 

 developed in different individuals, until finally they became abortive, reaching the condition to be seen in a certain 

 analogous fossil form, where there is nothing left but insignificant hip and thigh' Ijones, and ending, as in the present 

 whales and porpoises, where there is only a mere rudiment of a hip bone. There is one interesting feature which I should 

 not omit to mention. Most mammalian animals have two sets of teeth, an early set, called the milk teeth, and a 

 subsecjuent permanent set. The seal has these two sets of teeth, but tlie milk teeth are produced ami shed before the 

 young seal is born. The wlialebone whales also, which have no need wliatever of teeth, shed them all while they are 

 still unborn embryos." 



The professor seemed to have many interesting facts with which to support his views concerning the zoological 

 position of the seals, but we observed to him that the idea of land animals, and especially of such highly organized forms 

 as mammalians, changing their condition for a marine existence, was a very strange one, and should not be accepted 

 without abunilant evidence. '* How is it,"' we asked, " that we see nothing of these changes going on in tlie present day?" 

 " Such clianges are to be seen,'' answered the professor ; "a familiar example is the otter — an animal nearly allied to the 

 bear in its anatomical structure, though not in size and external form. Its feet are webbed, its ears very small, and on 

 land its movements are slow and awkward. The sea otter (Enhydra lu/ris), «itli its short and broad limbs, stumpy tail, 

 and rounil head, bears no distant resemblance to the sea-lions and sea-bears." 



Our suggested theory of seals being the transitional forms through which animals had progressed from marine to 

 terrestrial life not having met with the professor's approval, we asked him through what forms he supposed this change 

 had taken place. " Oil, there can be no doubt, " said he, " that it was through the mud fishes, such as the Barramundra or 



