AMPHIBIOUS CARNIVORA. 87 



is pursued chiefly in April. The Seals congregate in 

 numbers in winter in the neighbourhood of rapid 

 rivers and hot springs, where the ice is broken, to 

 which spots they resort, and bask or sleep in the 

 sun. The hunters are quite familiar with these 

 places, and put themselves into slight sledges, on 

 which they hoist a white sail. The Seals, taking 

 this for a floating island of ice, are not alarmed, 

 and approach. They are thus surprised and shot, 

 and many are captured/'* 



While man is thus the greatest, and, we fear, 

 of ten the cruelest, enemy of these Amphibia, it is not 

 to be forgotten that he is not the only one. On land 

 their chief foes, and especially of the Walrus, are 

 the Polar Bears ; and between these animals there are 

 often dreadful contests ; the Walrus being usually 

 victorious, at the same time carrying away many 

 fearful scars, the tokens of his triumph. In the ocean 

 many of the more formidable species of Whales are 

 ever making bloody and successful war against all 

 kinds of Seals. The following curious information is 

 given by Peron respecting the Great Sea- Elephant: 

 " The fishers state that they sometimes see these Seals 

 ascend from beneath the wave in the greatest appa- 

 rent alarm, many of them covered with wounds, and 

 dyeing the water with their blood. Their panic 

 concurs with their wounds in proving that they have 

 been hunted by some formidable foes. The fishers 

 unanimously agree that they know no animal which 



Voyag. de Pallas, t, iv. 136. 



