SEALS. 125 



for the familj'^ circle of a Goliath. A mouse with the form and structure of an elephant would be an 

 anomaly in nature. The machinery wotild not be adapted to the work to be done. The course of 

 nature woidd have to be reversed, and a new flora developed to suit such an animal, instead of the 

 animal hadng been modified to suit the flora. Bidlc, therefore, may fairly be admitted to go for 

 something in weighing affinities. What amphibious camivora have we then of bulk approaching 

 the Seal ? None but the Bear. The Seal has been compared to the Dog ; but we must remember 

 that it is only the smallest species of Seal that we are familiar with. The Walrus and the majority 

 of Seals are far beyond the dimensions of any dog. In addition, we have the resemblance in the 

 various structural peculiarities already glanced at in alluding to Professor Owen's classification of the 

 Bears and Seals. But, on the other hand, remains of Seals have been found in miocene foi-mations, 

 whereas those of the true Bears have not been found antecedent to the pliocene. No doubt the 

 supposed ancestor need not have actually been a Bear. It may have been another animal allied to 

 them, such as the Amphicyox, which dates back in geological history at least as far as the Seal. 



Although I have not refrained from hazarding a suggestion on this point, it is only as a 

 speculative fanc}% that I have done so ; for, as already mentioned, the fossil remains hitherto found 

 give us little information on the subject. They are scarce, and confined to the miocene and pliocene 

 deposits. Six or eight extinct species are said to have been fomid, but, as is often the case, some 

 of them may prove on closer examination not to be distinct. Dr. Mantcll mentions that considerable 

 nimibers of bones and teeth of two species of Seal have been found in the superficial ornithic bone- 

 beds of the north and middle island of New Zealand, which, although not examined by com- 

 petent authorities are probably the remains of the two species Stenorhynchus leptonyx and Phoca 

 LEONiNA, which now frequent the coasts of the islands,! i^i the same way that remains of the com- 

 mon Seal of our own seas, Phoca vitulina, occur in various recent local beds in Britain. It 

 is rather remarkable that the tooth of a species named Ph. occitana by Gervais, which has been 

 found in the pliocene marine sands of Montpelier, bears most analogy to the corresponding tooth 

 of this same S. leptoxyx of the Southern Seas. 



The nimiber of existing species is also few — not exceeding thirty in aU — which have been divided 

 by Dr. J. E. Gray* into thirteen genera. With the exception of two species that have been foimd 

 in the West Indian Seas, the whole are confined to the colder regions of the globe. With 

 one or two doubtfid exceptions, those foimd in the southern hemisphere are different from those of 

 the northern, and they are not only of difierent species, but belong to different sections. For our 

 purposes, the following subdivision will suffice — 1st. The Walrus, an aberrant form with semi- 

 herbivorous habits.J Then the remainder may be divided into two sections — those with visible ears 

 and those without them; the former being confined to the southern hcmisiDhcre and the northern 

 Pacific ; the latter to the Arctic regions and the Atlantic and European seas, with one or two out- 

 liers extending through Bhering's Straits and down by Kamschatka to Japan, and three or four 

 forms peculiar to the Antarctic Seas, along with which, however, falls to be placed a species (Mox- 

 ACHUS ALBiVEKTEii) fouiid in the Mediterranean, or rather in the Adriatic. 



* Mantell, G. a., "Petrifactions and their Teachings," shrimps, and of the shells of clams and cockles. I bo- 



1851, p. 113. lievo they also eat sub-mariue algoc or sea-weeds; and 



t Gray, J. E., " Catalogue of Mammalia in British Scoresby mentions having found the remains of young 



Museum," 1850, ii. Seals. Seals in their stomachs."— L.vmont, .S'easojw icilk Sea- 



I " 1 have frequently opened the stomachs of AValruses horses, 18C1, p. 142. 

 and found their food to consist of sand-worms, star-fish, 



