338 CARNIVORA. 



and separated from the plains by several hundred miles of high land. 

 Mr. Wallace adds : " We are accustomed to look at seals as animals 

 which exclusively inhabit salt water, but there seems no reason why 

 fresh water should not suit them, provided they find in it a sufficiency ol 

 food, facilities for rearing their young, and freedom from the attacks of 

 fenemies. Mr. Belt's ingenious hypothesis that during the Glacial epoch 

 the northern ice-cap dammed up the waters of the northward flowing 

 Asiatic rivers, and thus formed a vast fresh-water lake which might have 

 risen as high as Lake Baikal, seems to ofler the best solution of the 

 curious problem." 



The true seals keep closer to the coast than the eared-seals, and are 

 rarely seen over thirty nautical miles from land. On land their move- 

 ments are awkward — they cannot walk like the eared-seals, but only 

 shufHe along ; in the water they are perfectly at home, working their 

 fore-flippers as a means of propulsion, while the hind one seems more 

 used to steer by, and swimming with great speed. They are often seen 

 sporting in the sea, leaping in and out of the water, racing in circles, 

 and so occupied with their pursuits that a fisher can approach them 

 unperceived. When alarmed, they dive, but do not stay very long 

 under water, coming to the surface to breathe once a minute, on the 

 average, and perhaps never remaining more than six minutes under 

 water. Wallace observes that the seal has the curious habit of sleeping 

 for three minutes, and then waking for three minutes. 



The voice of the seal is usually like that of a calf, but when angry it 

 utters a growling bark. The eye is very peculiar, the pupil is neither 

 round nor oblong, but four-rayed ; the eye is very expressive, and the 

 seal when wounded or alarmed sheds tears. In spite of the absence of 

 an external ear, the sense of hearing is good, and the creature is very 

 susceptible to music, listening with great complacency to the sound of 

 bells. The seals will raise their heads above water and listen to the 

 song of the sailors weighing the anchor; at Iboy in the Orkneys, the 

 church stands on the shore, and when the bell rings for divine service, 

 the seals are observed swimming shoreward straight to the spot whence 

 the sound proceeds, and then listening with rapture as long as the bells 

 are ringing out their summons to all good Christians. 



They are easily tamed, learn their names, and come when called for, 

 and it is said that some have been trained to fish. The females are 

 devoted to their young, playing with them and defending them at all 



