2 SEALS. 
Phoques, F. Cuv. Dent. Mamm. 113, 1825. 
Amphibies quadrirémes, Duvernoy, Tab. Anim. Vert. vig 
Quadrupeda Nexopoda seu Plectropoda, G. Fischer, Zoognom. 12 ‘ 
Nectopoda, § 2. Pinnipeda, part., G. Fischer, Zoognomia, 15. 
Phocidee or Brachidontia, J. Brookes, Cat. Mus. 36, 1828. 
Otariadx, J. Brookes, Mus. Catal. Si 1828. 
Their limbs are short and fin-like, supported by the same 
number of bones as those of other carnivorous mammalia; the 
arm and leg bones are much shorter; the fingers and toes are 
armed with claws, and are webbed together. They swim with | 
facility, and dive for a long period: on the earth they scarcely 
use their limbs in walking, the fore-arms resting inactive on 
the sides, and the hind-feet close together, parallel on the sides” 
of the tail ; they move by the action of the ventral muscles in 
small jumps, or by wriggling themselves alternately from side” 
to side. They have very large, scarcely convex eyes; the nostrils 
are closed by their own elasticity, and opened at the will of the 
animal; the sense of smell is very acute, and the convolutions of 
the bones and membranes of the nose are much developed. 
The Seals have long been considered as one of the most diffi- 
cult families of Mammalia, partly on account of their great re-~ 
semblance to one another im external characters, and the changes: 
which they undergo during their growth in colour and form, but 
more especially on account of the difficulty of observing them in 
their natural habitations. 
The labours of M. de Blaimville, the two brothers Cuvier, fe 
especially of Professor Nilsson of Lund, have done much to elu- 
cidate the characters of the European species and those frequent= F 
ing the eastern coast of North America,—the species found in © 
the North Pacific are only known by the descriptions of Steller, ; 
Pallas and Temminck. Many naturalists have been imclined to 
consider them as identical with those found in the southern pa : 
of the Pacific Ocean, believing that the species migrate from one 
extremity of the world to the other; though we have the testi- 
mony of most voyagers that Seals are very rarely found between 
the equatorial line and 21° north latitude. 4 
The Seals of the Southern hemisphere have not been so well 
studied, from the want of sufficient materials. Cuvier, when he 
wrote the ‘ Ossemens Fossiles,’ possessed only eight skulls, be~ 
longing to four species (viz. 1. Phoca leptonyx; 2. P. ele=| 
phantina ; 3. P. pusilla; 4. P.leonina?); but as several of these 
had been brought home without the skins, he could only refer 
them doubtfully to established species. Indeed, almost the only 
knowledge that we have of these animals is derived from the 
observations of Cook, and the Forsters, who accompanied t that 
a 
