640 



SEAL. 



have not the same power of clasping with the fore 

 paws which is possessed by the whales. The young 

 are often killed in the caves, and their skins are held 

 in some estimation on account of the gloss of the fur. 

 In farmer times both old and young were eaten ; but 

 the flesh, especially that of the old ones, is coarse 

 and dark coloured, and the flavour of it is rank and 

 oily. There is perhaps no stronger proof of the great 

 superiority of the staple animal food of the present 

 times, over that with which the people of this coun- 

 try were formerly supplied, than the disuse of seals, 

 porpoises, and other sea animals, for the table. In 

 those days the sturgeon was held in such estimation 

 that it was considered as a royal fish, and any stray 

 one which now occurs gets a little credit probably for 

 the high place which it once occupied ; but as food, 

 the best that can be said of it is that it is tolerable, 

 which is more than can be said of the mature seal. 

 At present, seals are valued only for the oil and the 

 skin ; and as there are but few places on the British 

 coasts where they occur in such numbers as to ren- 

 der the capture of them a profitable occupation, they 

 are left in quiet possession of the sea and the banks, 

 except in some of the remote places, where they are 

 more numerous, and where human labour is of less 

 value. In most places the capture of them has fallen 

 off, compared with what it was in former times ; and 

 yet it does not appear that there has been any in- 

 crease of the numbers, but rather the reverse. Be- 

 sides the modes of capture, to which we have alluded 

 when speaking of the family generally, dogs are, or 

 at least once were, in some places, trained to catch 

 seals. 



Seals are much more easily tamed than almost any 

 other of the wild mammalia that are found in the 

 British islands ; and if they are taken young, and 

 tolerably well used, they soon learn to know their 

 keepers, and evince nearly the same attachment to 

 them as dogs do. Of course, in order to be properly 

 in their element, they must have access to the water, 

 which is essential to their comfort, though not to 

 their mere existence. They cannot of course accom- 

 pany their masters on land journeys, but they are 

 very constant on aquatic ones, and the watchfulness 

 which is so apparent in them in a state of wild nature 

 is capable of being turned to good account in domes- 

 tication. F. Cuvier, whose observation of animals in 

 the French Menagerie was equally close and accu- 

 rate, paid considerable attention to a pair of live seals 

 which were in that collection. They were very 

 young, not exceeding three feet in length, from which 

 circumstance, by the way, some of the French de- 

 scribers have set down three feet as the average 

 length, as if seals had no right to be bigger any where 

 than they were in the menagerie. From the obser- 

 vation of these, there seemed reason to conclude that 

 a fluid is secreted somewhere about the head of the 

 seal, which lubricates the body when the animal is in 

 the water, in some such way as the bodies of fishes 

 are lubricated by the mucous secretion. These ani- 

 mals did not show the slightest apprehension at the 

 sight of the company that visited their abode, though 

 they shuffled out of the way pretty quickly when 

 there appeared to be danger that they should be 

 trampled upon. The sounds which they uttered 

 were very feeble barking, and when they were an- 

 noyed they made a sort of hissing noise, like that of 

 a cat when suddenly offended. They never oft'ered 

 to bite, but they sometimes menaced with the paw ; 



and when they contended about their food, which 

 they did sometimes, they used the paws, not in avery 

 warlike manner, but merely to push each other away. 

 These seals were, however, rather too far removed 

 from their own natural element and economy for 

 enabling one to form a correct estimate of the cha- 

 racter of the species. 



One seal, which ;had been captured young, and 

 was kept for a considerable time by some artillery- 

 men on one of the small islets in the Firth of Forth, 

 would have afforded a better illustration if its history 

 bad been fully recorded. It was during the late war, 

 when the rumoured invasion had caused the construc- 

 tion of little forts and martello towers on so many 

 places of the coast, and Inch Colm was, we believe, 

 the islet ; the bombardier corps of men had little to 

 do in their lonely abode ; and so they tarned a seal, 

 till it showed a very strong attachment to them. It 

 went often to the water, but never showed the least 

 disposition to go away. On the contrary, it made 

 some demonstrations which had the appearance, on 

 its part, of a wish that, as it was their companion on 

 land, they should be its companions in the water. 

 It used to snatch their canes out of their hands, and 



t into the water with them, where it displayed 

 them to the owners with a good-natured air of triumph. 

 If they made efforts to get at it and the cane, it would 

 advance and retreat and play many tricks ; and if 

 they took no notice of it, it would bring the cane on 

 shore, but be off again before they could get hold of 

 it. If they threw any piece of stick into the sea, the 

 seal was instantly after it in the same way as a water 

 spaniel ; and in short, all its tricks very much resem- 

 bled those of the more playful varieties of dogs. 



It did not sleep on the rocks, but in the little bar- 

 rack which had been erected for the men ; and during 

 the day it was very fond of getting into their beds. 

 Its entrance into them was effected with tolerable 

 expedition ; but to descend was a more difficult mat- 

 ter, as it was apt to tumble, and at last was killed by 

 one of these falls. It is apparent to any one who 

 looks at a seal, or a good figure of one, that the ani- 

 mal can climb much better than it can descend ; and 

 that, though it can shuffle rapidly down a slope, yet 

 it cannot descend perpendicularly from a height in 

 any other way than by throwing itself down ; and 

 the fall is dangerous, unless it be into water, which is 

 its usual landing in a state of nature. 



When the party came to Leith in their boat for a 

 supply of provisions or stores, the seal was on the 

 qui vive ; and after a few trips it seemed to under- 

 stand, when the boat was getting in order, what was 

 to be the result, for it capered about the boat appa- 

 rently very much pleased, and when the boat rowed 

 off, it swam along with it ; but, in order to show that 

 it was the swifter of the two, it used to take a turn 

 round the boat now and then, and come to the gun- 

 wale as if to show that it had performed a feat. When 

 they landed at the pier and made the boat fast, the 

 seal took its station in it; and kept intruders at bay 

 until the men returned. It was altogether a very 

 interesting creature, and, of course, its fatal accident 

 was much regretted by its master?. 



There seems little doubt that with proper attention, 

 and not a great deal of it, the seal might be domes- 

 ticated by the people who live on the shores where it 

 is common. From the readiness with w hich the one 

 alluded to brought sticks out of the water, there is 

 little doubt that they might be trained to catch fish. 



