SEAL. 



G35 



they cannot so move upon the land as to be able to 

 catch a single article of food there. 



The other flesh-eating mammalia which they re- 

 semble the most are the otters ; but still there are 

 great differences between them. The otters are truly 

 and properly land animals, which hunt in the water 

 for the principal part of their food, but they always 

 bring it to the land to be eaten ; and upon emergency 

 they can find the whole of their food upon the land, 

 and are in the habitual practice of so rinding part of 

 it. The seals, on the other hand, always eat their 

 food in the water, as well as catch it there ; and 

 though they corne on land occasionally, they make 

 no nests, burrows, or other dwellings upon it, as is 

 done by all animals which claim the land as their 

 habitual and proper home. The females suckle their 

 young upon land, and it is understood that, generally 

 at least, they bring them forth in the caves just by 

 the margin of the waters ; but even there the bare 

 rock or beach is the only nest which they require. 



In order to fit them for their aquatic mode of 

 life, they can do with less frequent breathing than 

 any of the other mammalia, the whales themselves 

 perhaps not excepted. For a long time it was sup- 

 posed, and the popularity of Buffon's writings tended 

 not a little to extend and prolong the erroneous sup- 

 position, that in the seals the foramen ovalc, or inter- 

 nal communication between the chambers of the 

 heart, which is open in the foetus of most if not all of 

 the mammalia, remained open through life ; and that, 

 by means of this foramen, they could carry on the 

 circulation of the blood without breathing. There 

 were two mistakes in this matter, one of them struc- 

 tural and the other physiological, and both of rather 

 a curious nature. In the first place, the foramen does 

 not remain open, and in the second place, though it 

 did, that would not enable the circulation to go on in 

 a healthful manner. We can draw no analogy from 

 the fcetus in utcro, as to the economy of the animal 

 after it is born and thrown wholly upon the action of 

 its own system. The blood of the foetus may circu- 

 late any way, because the fetus does not aerate its 

 own blood. That operation is performed before 

 the placental nourishment enters the body of the 

 foetus ; and thus, though there is a circulation in the 

 systematic arteries and veins, there is none in the 

 pulmonic. But when the umbilical cord is divided, 

 and the animal has to find air for its own blood, the 

 case is very different ; and though blood were to pass 

 from artery to vein, or from vein to artery through 

 the foramen ovale, that would no more alter its cha- 

 racter than passing in or out at a door allers the cha- 

 racter of a man. Cuvier is of opinion that a pretty 

 large venous cavity, which is found in the liver of the 

 seals, enables them to continue longer without breath- 

 ing ; and though we know not in which way the 

 blood may be treasured up there, yet it is not impos- 

 sible that the portion of the blood which is unfit for 

 the purposes of life, until the air has acted upon it, 

 may be stored up in this. At all events, the seals 

 can remain much longer under water without coming 

 up to breathe than one would readily suppose to be 

 the case with animals of common energy, if there 

 were not some peculiar apparatus or modification in 

 their circulation. But what this modification may be 

 is another matter, and one upon which it is by no 

 means easy to get direct information : only we may 

 rest assured that it is not because the foramen ovale 

 remains open. 



True to its compound habits, the seal is an animal 

 of compound structure, or, at all events, of compound 

 appearance. The form of its body still retains much 

 of that of the land animal, while the shape and the 

 organs of motion adapt it for the water. The cover- 

 ing of the body is also that of a land animal, and not 

 of a, fish, or even of a whale. All the seals are cover- 

 ed with hair ; sometimes the greater part of it is hard 

 or bristly, but laid smoothly on the skin, and having 

 a polished or shining appearance. This hair is, ge- 

 nerally speaking, more or less flattened, and tapering 

 to the point. It gets wetted, as is proved by the fact 

 of the difference of colour when immediately out of 

 the water, and after being some time on land ; but 

 it has no tendency to get in any way twined or mat- 

 ted by the water, neither does it take such a hold on 

 the water, as in any way to impede the motion of the 

 animal. Besides this, many of the seals have the 

 body under the long and shining hair covered with 

 very close, soft, and delicate fur, which is often used 

 for ornamental purposes, and has this advantage over 

 the fur of land animals, that it is much less injured 

 by getting wet. 



The arms and fore-arms of the seal are very short, 

 and wholly concealed under the skin of the shoulder 

 and breast ; and the fingers, which are five in num- 

 ber, are united by membrane into a sort of paw or 

 paddle, which is of considerable use to the animal in 

 swimming, and their chief organ of motion when 

 they shuffle along upon land. The hind legs are 

 still more concealed, and have less of independent 

 motion than the fore ones ; but the toes are more 

 webbed, and they are altogether more efficient in 

 swimming. The motion of the seal along the beach 

 is, in fact, a swimming motion ; the paws strike back- 

 wards, instead of being planted like those of a walk- 

 ing animal. Thus, when the seal moves along a 

 stony beach, the backward stroke of the paws 

 often throws the stones to some distance behind ; 

 and this has given vise to the vulgar notion that the 

 seal retreats like a Parthian, discharging its missiles 

 on the enemy. Whatever may have been the fact 

 in the case of the Parthians, this throwing of stones 

 and gravel behind it is not intentional on the part of 

 the seal. Indeed it is a disadvantage ; for all the 

 effort which is spent in throwing the stones is lost to 

 the animal in making its way ; and if one wishes to 

 capture a seal upon land, stony and shingly places are 

 those in which the attempt is most likely to prove 

 successful. It is but very seldom, however, that a 

 seal can be taken in this manner ; for it is so vigilant, 

 and generally so near the water, that it is launched 

 before one can come up with it. The adventure of 

 Captain Macintyre and the Phoca in Scott's " An- 

 tiquary," the mention of which was so annoying to 

 the pride of the soldier, is extremely well told ; but 

 as a real occurrence, is not the most likely, though, 

 if the passage of a seal to the water is interrupted in 

 the way there represented, there is little doubt that 

 it would show fight, and readily wrench a stick out of 

 the hand of its assailant, and make off with it to the 

 water, as there stated. 



The skeleton of the seal resembles that of the 

 land mammalia much more than their external shape 

 would lead us to suppose. The size of the brain de- 

 mands a corresponding capacity of- the cranium. In 

 the spinal column, the spinous processes are much 

 shorter than they are in land mammalia, as much less 

 motion in the parts of the spine is required than in 



