236 THE BIRD WATCHER 
I just got his back, ggithout the head or other parts. 
Seen im toto—or as much of him as could be seen— 
he more suggested, both by shape and colouring com- 
bined, a gigantic mole ; or again, his head, with the 
long cylindrical-looking nose, had a very porcine 
appearance. But whilst floating upright in the way 
I have described, he looked like a buoy merely, of 
which the muzzle, with its round-bore nostrils—they 
looked as if a ping-pong ball would just fit into each 
of them—was the apex. All resemblance to a living 
thing was then gone; but when the great beast brought 
down his head again into a natural position, and 
looked about with full eyes, dark and mild, one saw 
that he was an intelligent and refined animal. 
Modification seems to have gone considerably farther 
in this species than in the common seal. The skin, 
except for the long, strong whiskers, is absolutely 
smooth and hairless. The nose, head, and neck are 
more in a line, whilst the back rises from the latter 
with a still gentler undulation. This elongation and 
prominence of the nose, or rather the muzzle, which 
is broad, also, in proportion, take away from that full 
and rounded appearance of the forehead which gives 
such a look of intelligence—almost of humanity—to 
the common seal. But this, no doubt, is an inferiority 
in appearance only, and “the eye’s black intelligence” 
remains. But though the jewel is there the setting 
of it is very poor. There appears to be no defined 
eyelid, so that when the eye is shut it looks like 
a mere slit in the naked skin. Eyebrows, however, 
