THE COMMON SEAL. 65 



Till twice six times they see the eastern gleams 

 Brighten the hills, and tremble on the streams. 

 The thirteenth morn, soon as the early dawn 

 Hangs out its crimson folds, or spreads its lawn, 

 No more the fields and leafy coverts please, 

 Each hugs her own, and hastes to rolling seas. 



The females continue to suckle their young ones 

 for a little while after they take them into the 

 water; and the Cornish fishermen informed Mr. 

 Borlase, that they had often seen two of them suck- 

 ing the dam, as she stood in the sea, in an upright 

 position*. As soon as the young ones are able to 

 provide for themselves, the female always prevents 

 them from sucking any longer, by furiously driving 

 them off, which is not done without many severe 

 blows. We are informed by Martin, that the teats 

 of female Seals are each situated in a kind of hollow 

 place, that they may not suffer injury by the ani- 

 mals' creeping along rocks and stones. It is on this 

 account, he says, that the point of the tongue is 

 bifid, or cloven at the end, without which shape the 

 young ones would not be able to suckf. 



The season that the Seals frequent caverns for 

 the purpose of bringing forth their offspring, is 

 about the latter end of the autumn; and certainly 

 not, as M. de Buffon has asserted, in the midst of 



winter. 







* Pennant's British Zoology, i. p. 144. 

 t Martin's Account of the Western Islands, p. 65. 



F The 



