398 INHABITS FRESH-WATER LAKES. 



Like the Common Seal, it is readily domesticated. Of 

 one that was for some time in the Jardin de Plantes, at 

 Paris, M. F. Cuvier makes the following observations : 

 "Except some monkeys, I have never known any wild 

 animal which was more easily tamed, or attached itself 

 more strongly. When it first came, it endeavoured to 

 escape when I wished to touch it ; hut in a very few days all 

 its apprehensions vanished. It had discovered my inten- 

 tions, and rather desired my caresses than feared them. It 

 was in the same enclosure with two small dogs, which 

 amused themselves hy frequently mounting on its hack, with 

 barking and even biting it ; and although their sports and 

 the vivacity of the attending movements were little in har- 

 mony with its own actions and habits, yet it appreciated 

 their motives, and seemed pleased with them. It never 

 offered any other retaliation than slight blows with its 

 paws, the object of which was to encourage rather than 

 repress the liberties taken. If the puppies escaped from 

 the enclosure, the Seal endeavoured to follow thorn, not- 

 withstanding the difficulty it experienced in creeping 

 along the ground, which was covered with stones and 

 rubbish. When the weather was cold, the three animals 

 huddled closely and kindly together, that they might 

 contribute to their mutual warmth." 



The Marbled Seal, Nilsson tells us, inhabits the 

 Ladoga in Russia, and the Sairnen in Finland, to 

 which great lakes it finds its way from the Gulf of 

 Finland; and it is a varietv of this Seal, the Professor 

 believes, that is found in the Lake Baikal, in Siberia, a 

 specimen from whence is now in the Lund Museum. " It 

 is remarkable, however," he proceeds to say, that " in tin- 

 last-named lake it is of a grey-brown colour; in the Ladoga, 

 black; and in the Sairuen. blackish with whitenings. 



From what has been stated in regard to the size and 

 habits of the Marbled Seal, may we not infer that it is 



