LOCOMOTION ON LAND. 491 



along which they so recently passed, and is to be their home 

 until the duties of the nursery are performed, and their sleek 

 progeny are strong enough to accompany the herd. The de- 

 tachments which we left on their way up the Straits of Belle- 

 isle [have] met their own difficulties : the fishermen waylay them 

 here most assiduously net after net awaits the toiling emi- 

 grants, which are turned to good purpose. Several thousands 

 are taken at the many stations planted on all parts of the shore 

 from Cape Charles to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In the Gulf 

 many of them pass the winter and bring forth on the ice formed 

 near the shores of this sea ; a few of the young are taken by 

 the inhabitants of the Magdalene and other islands ; but a con- 

 siderable section of the original stock circumnavigate New- 

 foundland, and join the great body on the banks. Those which 

 winter in the Gulf of St. Lawrence quit their quarters in that 

 sea about the end of June, and on their way down the Straits 

 of Belleisle reward the watchful fishermen with a few additional 

 thousands of their much-prized carcasses. These are now ac- 

 companied by their young, all but as round and bulky as their 

 parents. After clearing the Straits little more is seen of them. 

 It is believed that, in order to avoid the adverse current, they 

 make their passage north to their old summer haunts at a much 

 greater distance from the land." * 



LOCOMOTION ON LAND. 



As first pointed out by Dr. Murie,t the Pinnipeds present three 

 distinct modes of terrestrial locomotion. The common or Ear- 

 less Seals are usually described as progressing belly- wise, by a 

 wriggling motion of the body, with the hind-limbs directed back- 

 ward and held in opposition, and the fore-limbs drawn close to 

 the body. This seems to have been hitherto commonly consid- 

 ered as the only mode of progression on land or ice possessed by 

 any member of this group, f the Elephant Seal perhaps excepted. 

 The plantigrade walk of the Otaries and the Walruses has of 



* J. C. Steavenson, in the "Field" of November 28, 1863; quoted in (and 

 here transcribed from) the " Zoologist," vol. xxii, 1864, pp. 8873, 8874. 



tProc. Zool. Soc. London, 1870, p. 605, pi. xxxii. 



t Bell, writing of the Phocce in 1837 says, "Their movements on laud are 

 ludicrously awkward. They make no use of their feet in terrestrial pro- 

 gression, but throw themselves forward by plunges, the anterior part of the 

 body and the posterior being alternately applied to the ground. In this way 

 they make their way at a moderate pace along a tolerably even surface." 

 Hist. Brit. Quad, p. 257. 



