62 COMPARATIVE ANATOMf OF 



though supported by so many respectable names, 

 has been at first advanced on insufficient grounds, 

 and been propagated afterwards through inadver- 

 tency. These counter-statements should, at all 

 events, induce us to receive the startling propo- 

 sition with great hesitation and caution; and the 

 more so, as, even with the precarious supplies 

 just adverted to, it might be anticipated, that the 

 animals could not fail to become in the last degree 

 emaciated and feeble. 



We have still to add a scarcely less singu- 

 lar circumstance, viz. that these animals are in 

 the habit of filling their stomachs with an im- 

 mense number of great hard stones, so that it is 

 a wonder how their coats are not torn to pieces by 

 them. Thus, in the words of Forster, " The sto- 

 machs of some were filled with ten or twelve round 

 heavy stones, each the size of two fists/' The cir- 

 cumstances under which they indulge in this habit are 

 not well determined. Most frequently it has been 

 associated with their extraordinary fastings: but 

 these cannot be the only cause ; because sometimes 

 they have been found in animals which had long 

 been domesticated, and were taking their usual 

 quantity of food. This suggested the idea, that the 

 craving might be owing to their unnatural position 

 on land ; but this is met by the fact that sometimes 

 they have been found in the stomachs of those re- 

 cently captured. It was under these circumstances, 

 we believe, they were found in the stomach of the 

 Grey Seal, captured in the Severn, and now in the 



