SEAL 



641 



The otter has been so trained ; and the seal is at least 

 as intelligent as the otter, and it is an aiiimal of much 

 more gentle disposition. The milk of the females might 

 also be used for domestic purposes ; and, in short, it 

 is highly probable that, by proper attention, a good 

 deal might be made of the common seal. 



THE GREAT SEAL (P. barbata) is the only other 

 species which comes to the British shores ; and only 

 to the remote northern and western islos, where it is 

 a straggler more than anything else. It is much 

 larger t'tan the common seal, being twelve feet in 

 length, and sometimes more. They are said to be 

 found in pairs only, and not in herds like the common 

 ones. The hair is coarse, and of a blackish grey or 

 brownish colour, but it does not appear to be more 

 constant in this respect than it is in the common seal. 

 The following description is from Ross's First Voyage 

 to the North-east of America; but the specimen does 

 not appear to have been full-grown : " Length from 

 the tip of the nose to the extremity of the tail eight feet ; 

 its circumference behind the fore flappers seven feet 

 five inches ; weight eight hundred and thirty pounds ; 

 fore flappers measured in length eleven inches, in 

 breadth six inches ; hind flappers in length sixteen 

 inches, in breadth two feet when expanded ; the claws 

 on the former were black, horny, and curved, those 

 on the latter long and straight ; fingers five, middle 

 ones longest in the fore flappers ; the body covered 

 with thick, coarse, short, dark grey hair ; the eyes 

 about the size of an ox's, furnished with a nictitant 

 membrane, irides dark hazel ; the pupil elliptic, per- 

 pendicular ; no external ears ; the auricular apertures 

 placed about two inches behind the eyes ; the upper 

 lip broad, rounded, fleshy, divided into two lobes by 

 a deep suleous division, which is black and naked ; 

 each lobe is provided with eight rows of strong white 

 bristles, some pellucid, and curled at the ends ; the 

 lower lip thin, and pointed ; tongue thick, pointed, 

 and cleft ; upper surface papillous ; teeth, upper front 

 six, truncate, small ; tusks solitary, truncate ; grinders 

 three, the anterior one solitary ; lower front four, im- 

 perfectly developed ; tusks small and obtuse ; grinders 

 seven, the two posterior imperfectly lobed, the rest 

 being small tuberosities, scarcely produced through 

 the gum ; the heart about the bulk of that of an ox, 

 its texture strong ; the foramen ovale obliterated (a 

 point on which there is yet some discord among 

 comparative anatomists). The aorta three inches in 

 diameter, its coats two and a half lines in thickness ; 

 the calibre of the pulmonary artery nearly the same, 

 the thickness of its coats one line ; kidneys elliptic, 

 lobes one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty ; 

 stomach filled with a greenish dark fluid ; its inner 

 coat lined with escarides one inch and a half long ; 

 they hold on with great tenacity, rendering it difficult 

 to disturb them ; the smaller intestines were inhabited 

 thickly by lenise, from one foot to four feet in length." 

 Such is the circumstantial description given of this 

 specimen ; but the descriptions of the seals of the 

 high latitudes given by different writers vary so much, 

 that it is difficult to reconcile them. 



This species is also called the bearded seal, from 

 the mustachios on the upper lip. The middle toe on 

 the fore paws is very long, and the inner one very 

 short. On the young ones the fur is much softer 

 than on the adults, and that on the under parts is 

 partially woolly. The hair falls off to such an extent 

 that the very old ones are nearly naked ; the colour 

 also changes so much with age, that the species is 



NAT. HIST. VOL. III. 



apt to be mistaken. Their chief abode' is in the high 

 latitudes near the polar ice ; they come to land or to 

 the margin of the ice very early, and in March or 

 April the young are brought forth. One at a birth is 

 understood to be the number, and they are often 'era- 

 died on the floating ice. They are timid animals, and 

 have not the watchfulness of the common seals. The 

 Greenlanders esteem their flesh as an article of food 

 and that of the young ones is said to resemble veal 

 in colour, and not to be unpleasant in the taste. The 

 people in the northern lands esteem them as being 

 among the most valuable of all the seals. 



GREENLAND SEAL (P. Greenlandica). This species 

 is found in the same seas as the last mentioned one, 

 only it never rambles so far to the south as to be met 

 with on even the remotest of the British isles. It is 

 subject to still greater variations of colour than the 

 last-mentioned one, and therefore the accounts of it 

 are, if possible, more confused. It attains the length 

 of ten or eleven feet, though smaller ones are more 

 frequently met with. The colour is most commonly 

 yellowish-white, with the muzzle and forepart of the 

 head black or dusky, and the sides marked with large 

 irregular blotches of the same colour. It is very 

 generally distributed in the high latitudes of the 

 North Sea ; but the White Sea appears to be the only 

 sea decidedly European to which it resorts, and its visits 

 there are only seasonal. In the more northerly seas it 

 is found throughout the year, and eagerly sought 

 after both for the oil that it affords and for its skin ; 

 but it has been so differently described by authors 

 who have met with it of different ages, and also in the 

 sexes, which vary from each other in many external ap- 

 pearances, that it seems to have been made not less than 

 half a dozen of different species,and to have been called 

 by a whole dozen of different names. Even the number 

 of teeth appears to vary at different ages, so that there 

 seems to be hardly any permanent character about 

 it. The general colour of the adult is the yellowish- 

 white which has been mentioned, with the anterior 

 part of the head, and a patch on each flank, nearly or 

 altogether meeting on the upper part, of a colour 

 varying from blackish-grey to almost entirely black. 



Greenland Seal. 



These markings, whether they incline more to grey 

 or to black, are always very intense in the colour, 

 and contrast boldly with the ground upon which they 

 are placed. On the flanks they appear to be made 

 up of a congeries of spots, which completely run into 

 each other in the centre of the patch, but "which are 

 SS 



