2 4 2 



THE SEALS. 



ject considerably beyond the ends of the digits, 

 and are further extended by membranous lobes 

 corresponding to the fingers ; so that the small 

 nails are situated on the upper surface of the 

 flippers pretty far from the margin. The 

 forearms and the legs are free, and by bending 

 the longish paws at the wrist or ankle-joint 

 the animals can raise themselves wholly 

 above the ground and walk in that posture 

 without trailing their bellies. They wind 

 about in clambering up an incline, and in our 

 zoological gardens they may be seen spring- 

 ing up a short flight of steps one by one pretty 

 quickly, in order to reach a platform from 

 which they have to plunge into the tank to 

 catch a fish thrown to them. The voice of 

 the large species is like the lowing of oxen. 



The eared seals are certainly the most 

 closely allied to the land Carnivora of all the 

 Pinnipedia. The skull, furnished with a strong 

 longitudinal ridge, and separated from the 

 pretty long facial region by a narrow constric- 

 tion, the large temporal fossae surrounded 

 by very wide zygomatic arches, the narrow 

 palate hollowed out almost in the form of a 

 channel, the large thick-rooted canines, the 

 whole arrangement of the lines give to the 

 skull of a sea-lion much resemblance to that 

 of a bear. True it is that this resemblance 

 disappears on a closer examination of the 

 dentition in particular, but the general impres- 

 sion betrays the affinity. 



The eared seals have six incisors in the 

 upper jaw, three in each half of the premaxilla, 

 but the outer pair are very strongly curved, 

 and altogether show much resemblance in 

 form to the very prominent canines. The 

 molars, five or six in number in each half of 

 the jaw, are all very like one another, in 

 some cases provided with sharp-pointed cusps, 

 in others with small sharp eminences at the 

 base of the crown. These molars are set wide 

 apart, and are almost of equal size. In the 

 lower jaw there are only four not very broad 

 incisors, very highly curved canines, and five 

 isolated molars of similar form and equal size, 



on the crowns of which the small secondary 

 cusps are usually better developed than in 

 the upper jaw. 



Dental formula : ^ = 34-36 teeth 







in all. 



On the northern hemisphere the eared 

 seals are absolutely confined to the Pacific 

 Ocean and the surrounding seas, but on the 

 southern they are found in all the polar parts 

 of the Great Ocean, and ascend to the Cape 

 of Good Hope as well as to America and 

 Australia. A savage war is waged against 

 them in Tierra del Fuego, on the Falkland 

 Islands, and Kerguelen Land on the one 

 hand, and on the coasts of California, Alaska, 

 and Kamchatka on the other. We have 

 selected for illustration two species belonging 

 to the northern hemisphere, which play an 

 important part in the fisheries of the last- 

 mentioned coasts. Even in last century, in 

 the time of Steller, the inhabitants of these 

 inhospitable regions had committed such 

 massacres among these animals on the islands 

 of Pribylov, their chief resort, that the Russian 

 government soon found itself compelled to 

 regulate the fishery by strict measures so as 

 to prevent their entire extirpation. Some 

 idea may be formed of the destruction wrought 

 by these senseless massacres when we are 

 told that during the summer of 1868, when 

 the islands with the territory of Alaska had 

 just been ceded to the United States and the 

 new government had not had opportunity to 

 issue a new ordinance, the number slain 

 reached the enormous total of 250,000. 



At this time the number of eared seals 

 assembled on the two islands of Pribylov, 

 St. Paul and St. George, was estimated at 

 three millions and a quarter. At present the 

 company which has the monopoly has only 

 the right of killing 100,000 head every year, 

 and on some points of the coasts the rocks 

 frequented by these animals have been laid 

 under ban so that the seals may resort there 

 in perfect security. 





