CHAPTER XXVI. 



Seals. — The Common Seal. — Its Love of Music. — Its Disposition. — Its 

 Sagacity. — Its Breeding Habits. — Its Domestic Habits. • — Tlio 

 Marbled or Ringed Seal. — Love for its Offspring. — Inhabits 

 Fresh-water Lakes. — The Grey Seal. — Its Migratory Habits. — 

 Great Pedestrian Feat. 



WHILST crui.sing amongst the islands off the coast, 

 we not unfrequently met with Seals ; less fre- 

 quently, however, near Gothenburg-, where boats and 

 vessels were constantly passing, than at a distance from 

 home, those animals being there less subject to disturb- 

 ance and molestation. 



Swedish and Norwegian naturalists include six species 

 in their Pauna ; viz., the Common, or Spotted Seal ; the 

 Marbled, or Hinged Seal ; the Grey Seal ; the Harp, or 

 Greenland Seal ; the Great Bearded Seal ; and the Hooded 

 or Crested Seal. 



The Common Seal {Sprdcklifj Skdl, Vikare-Skul, Sw. ; 

 Steen-Kohbe, Norw. ; Plioca v'Unlina, Linn.), which is so 

 generally distributed in the seas of the more northern 

 parts of Europe, was, with us, the most numerous of the 

 family. It is common, likewise, on all the western coasts 



