THE SEAL ITS STRUCTURE, ETC. 375 



fact, could call forth its manifestation at pleasure. 

 In walking along the shore in the calm of a 

 summer afternoon, a few notes of my flute would 

 bring half a score of them within twenty or thirty 

 yards of me ; and there they would swim about 

 with their heads above water, like so many black 

 dogs evidently delighted with the sounds. For 

 half an hour, or indeed for any length of time I 

 chose, I could fix them to the spot; and when I 

 moved along the water's edge they would follow 

 me with eagerness, like the dolphins, who, it is 

 said, attended Arion. I have frequently wit- 

 nessed the same effect when out on a boat excur- 

 sion. The sound of a flute, or of a common fife, 

 blown by one of the boatmen, was no sooner heard 

 than half a dozen would start up within a few 

 yards, wheeling round us as long as the music 

 played." Another author mentions the remark- 

 able fact that when the bells of the church of 

 Hoy, which stands on the sea-shore, were rung 

 for divine service, all the seals within hearing 

 made directly for the shore, where they kept 

 looking about them as if surprised at the sounds. 

 This peculiarity in the seal has often been re- 

 garded as fabulous, but there is no reason what- 

 ever to doubt its accuracy. 



The element in which the seal chiefly dwells is 

 the sea, and although on land its movements are 

 awkward in the extreme, no aquatic animal is 

 more admirably adapted to move in the water. 

 If we examine its structure we perceive that its 



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