23S SEA-LION OF FORSTER. 



After describing the coat and mane very much as 

 Steller had done, Buffon proceeds " It has no fur or 

 short woolly hair under the longer hair, as is found 

 in the Sea-Bears. The weight of the full-grown 

 male is about sixteen cwt., and its length between 

 ten and twelve feet ; the females are much more 

 slender and shorter, usually about seven or eight 

 feet long. They are every where equally thick, and 

 look like great cylinders more t suitable for rolling 

 than for walking. Moreover, this rounded body 

 scarcely seems to be properly trimmed, because, 

 oeing covered with an immense quantity of fat, it 

 immediately assumes all the inequalities of the soil 

 and rocks over which it moves or rests while taking 

 repose. The head appears too small in proportion 

 to the body ; the muzzle is not unlike that of a large 

 mastiff, being somewhat elevated and truncated at 

 Us extremity ; the upper lip overhangs the lower, 

 and both are supplied with long coarse black 

 whiskers, which become white with age. The 

 ears are conical, about six or seven lines long, the 

 cartilage is firm and stiff, and yet they are some- 

 what curled at the margin ; they are covered with 

 nair externally, and are smooth and destitute of it 

 nternally. The eyes are large and prominent, so 

 are the caruncles, which have a bright red colour, 

 so that the eyes appear inflamed ; there is a nictitat- 

 ing membrane which covers all the eye at the will 

 of the animal. The tongue is somewhat forked at 

 the extremity." The teeth are made so exactly to 

 correspond with Steller's description, that though 



