52 LECTUEE IV. 



easily attracted by musical sounds, putting their 

 heads out of water evidently for the purpose 

 of listening to them. There is a well-known 

 old seal in the Forth, who, from old age, has 

 become perfectly white. The fishermen call 

 him the Laird of Aberdour ; and as they have 

 never been able to kill him, they think that 

 he cannot be killed. When a boat approaches 

 the rock on which he is, he rolls himself into 

 the water. The quantity of fish seals destroy 

 is enormous, coming up the rivers after the 

 salmon. 



The beaver is another sagacious animal, 

 living in companies, and acting together as 

 if they were possessed of reason. In making 

 their strong dams across the rivers in North 

 America, they will, with their sharp teeth, 

 gnaw through the bottom of a tree, so as to 

 make it fall exactly where they want it. They 

 then fill up the spaces with clay, to form the 

 dam, using their flat tails, as bricklayers use 

 trowels, in plastering it. In the recesses of this 

 dam they lay up their winter store of food. 



But I must conclude, with the hope that I 

 may have amused you. I will endeavour to give 

 you one more lecture before I leave Brighton, 



