2 SEALS. 



Phoques, F. Cuv. Dent. Mamm. 113, 1825. 

 Amphibies quadriremes, Duvernoy, Tab. Anim. Vert. 

 Quadrupeda Nexopoda sen Plectropoda, G. Fischer, Zoognom. 12. 

 Nectopoda, 2. Pinnipeda, part., G. Fischer, Zoognomia, 15. 

 Phocid*e or Brachidontia, J. Brookes, Cat. Mus. 36, 1828. 

 Trichehidje seu Campodontia, J. Brookes, Mus. Catal. 37, 1828. 

 Otariada?, J. Brookes, Mus. Catal. 37, 1828. 



Their limbs are short and fin-like, supported by the same 

 number of bones as those of other carnivorous mammalia ; the 

 arm and leg bones are much shorter ; the fingers and toes are 

 armed with claws, and are webbed together. They swim with 

 facility, and dive for a long period : on the earth they scarcely 

 use their limbs in walking, the fore-arms resting inactive on 

 the sides, and the hind-feet close together, parallel on the sides 

 of the tail ; they move by the action of the ventral muscles in 

 small jumps, or by wriggling themselves alternately from side 

 to side. They have very large, scarcely convex eyes ; the nostrils 

 are closed by their own elasticity, and opened at the will of the 

 animal ; the sense of smell is very acute, and the convolutions of 

 the bones and membranes of the nose are much developed. 



The Seals have long been considered as one of the most diffi- 

 cult families of Mammalia, partly on account of their great re- 

 semblance to one another in external characters, and the changes 

 which they undergo during their growth in colour and form, but 

 more especially on account of the difficulty of observing them in 

 their natural habitations. 



The labours of M. de Blainville, the two brothers Cuvier, and 

 especially of Professor Nilsson of Lund, have done much to elu- 

 cidate the characters of the European species and those frequent- 

 ing the eastern coast of North America, the species found in 

 the North Pacific are only known by the descriptions of Steller, 

 Pallas and Temminck. Many naturalists have been inclined to 

 consider them as identical with those found in the southern part 

 of the Pacific Ocean, believing that the species migrate from one 

 extremity of the world to the other ; though we have the testi- 

 mony of most voyagers that Seals are very rarely found between 

 the equatorial line and 21 north latitude. 



The Seals of the Southern hemisphere have not been so well 

 studied, from the want of sufficient materials. Cuvier, when he 

 wrote the ' Ossemens Fossiles,' possessed only eight skulls, be- 

 longing to four species (viz. 1. Phoca leptonyx; 2. P. ele- 

 phantina ; 3. P.pusilla ; 4. P. leonina ?); but as several of these 

 had been brought home without the skins, he could only refer 

 them doubtfully to established species. Indeed, almost the only 

 knowledge that we have of these animals is derived from the 

 observations of Cook, and the Forsters, who accompanied that 



