SEALS. 16 



hinder edge, and a sharp-edged ridge round the inner side of the 

 base. The front grinder in each jaw smaller, and with a single 

 conical root, the rest all 2-rooted nearly to the crown. Lower 

 jaw slender, with a short symphysis in front, and narrow, with- 

 out any angle at the hinder part of the lower edge. 



Fig. 4. 



Leptonyx Weddellii. Skull and first and last grinder. 



Fore feet small, elongate, triangular, hairy above and below, 

 with five graduated, distant, marginal claws ; hind feet moderate ; 

 the two marginal toes largest, rounded at the end ; claws small, 

 rudimentary, two middle largest. 



Fur short, adpressed, without any under-fur; hair slender, 

 tapering, slightly flattened. 



The skull of this genus resembles in many respects Cuvier's 

 figure of a skull of Phoca bicolor ; but it differs from it in all the 

 grinders being placed more longitudinally, and in the lower jaw 

 being slender, and without any angle on the hinder part of the 

 lower edge. It is far more nearly allied to that genus than Ste- 

 norhynchus, to which Mr. Owen (Ann. N. H. 1843, 331, 332) 

 has referred it ; observing that his Sten. serridens (our Lobodon 

 cancrivora) shows modifications of the molar teeth which would 

 give it a better claim to subgeneric distinction than the Sten. 

 Weddellii (which he observed is the type of the subgenus Lep- 

 tonyx of Mr. Gray) has been supposed to possess. 



Mr. Owen made this remark, and drew up his specific cha- 

 racter, without having seen the teeth ; for the skull was not then 

 removed from the skin, .and the specimens in the British Museum 

 were stuffed with their mouth nearly closed. 



This animal is easily known from StenorhyncJius by the short- 

 ness of the wrist, and the triangular form of the fore feet, being 



