54 ANIMALS OP NORTH AMERICA. 



of extreme shortness, and occasions the animal to crawl on 

 land with great awkwardness and seeming difficulty, to which 

 motion the expressive term " walloping " is applied. In the 

 water they, move gracefully and easily. By means of their 

 fore feet they can lay hold of objects with sufficient firmness 

 to drag themselves up shores, and on shoals of ice, however 

 slippery they may be. Even on land their motions are quicker 

 than their appearance would lead one to expect ; so that it 

 frequently happens that when they have been dangerously 

 wounded, hunters are unable to overtake them before they 

 get to the water's edge and so escape. 



The nostrils of the seal are provided with a peculiar mus- 

 cular apparatus, by which their orifices are perfectly closed 

 at will, effectually excluding water during submersion. Cuvier 

 states that they are seldom opened, except when desirous of 

 expelling or introducing air into its lungs : and that they then 

 assume a circular form; their respiration is extremely unequal, 

 and performed after long intervals. The quantity of air 

 inhaled seems, however, to compensate for the paucity of the 

 inspirations, for few animals have more natural heat or a 

 greater quantity of blood than the seal. The form of the 

 teeth and the jaws shows them to be carnivorous, their food 

 consisting principally of fish, crabs, and sea birds, which they 

 are able to surprise while swimming. 



The females produce two or three young at a time, gener- 

 ally in the winter. When the cubs have acquired strength 

 enough to contend with the waves, the mother conducts them 

 to the water and teaches them to swim about in search of food. 

 When in danger, the safety of her cubs is the chief object of 

 attention with the mother. The male parent, particularly of 

 the ursine seal, seems to take scarcely less delight in the young 

 than the mother. While basking in the sun upon the shore, 

 he eyes them with the greatest complacency, and expresses 

 his satisfaction by licking and kissing them as they sport and 

 tumble about. 



