SEAL. 



643 



Their food consists in great part of the cephalopodous 

 mollusca which float in such numbers in those seas ; 

 but they are also said to eat sea-weed, the Lamina- 

 rin gigantea, or great sea-belt for instance at all 

 events, they form a sort of bed for their young with 

 this weed upon the sandy shores. During the first 

 four months of the year they are dispersed through 

 the ocean, and not to be met with on the shores ; and 

 for the rest of the year they are alternately on the 

 land and in the water. They are heavy, mild-tem- 

 pered, and unsuspecting animals, by no means so 

 watchful of danger as the seals which are to be found 

 on our shores. They allow the fishers to come close 

 to them on the rocks, and fell them on the head with 

 clubs ; and those which do get into the water, launch 

 themselves so slowly, that they are generally killed by 

 the men who wait for them in the boats. They have 

 another resemblance to the gallinaceous birds, besides 

 the seasonal appendage to the head. The males are 

 polygamous, each one having a number of females in 

 his train, forming a sort of marine seraglio; and when 

 two males encounter each other at this season, a 

 fierce battle of gallantry ensues, in which, as is usual 

 among animals in such cases, the females desert the 

 conquered, and join the train of the conqueror. The 

 young are one or two at a birth, produced about 

 July or August ; and the females suckle them for two 

 or three months. When they migrate it is usually 

 in herds of from a hundred and fifty to two hundred, 

 the pugnacious disposition of the males ceasing with 

 the season of which it is more immediately charac- 

 teristic. The interest which is attached to these 

 animals for their oil, is nearly as great as that which 

 was attached to the Greenland whale before its num- 

 bers were so thinned as they are now, or the animals 

 driven so far into the polar ice as to render the fishing 

 equally uncertain and dangerous. 



Animals which have long seasonal migrations are 

 seldom so liable to changes of colour as those which 

 are more local ; and hence it is probable that these 

 large seals of the south do not vary so much as the 

 seals in the north. Still there appear to be very 

 considerable differences; and they probably have 

 been called by various names generally by those of 

 sea-lions, sea-wolves, and others equally out of keep- 

 ing with the true characters of the animals. But 

 some members of the other genus, or subgenus, have 

 also been called sea-lions. 



THE LONG-NECKED SEAL (P. Wcddellii). This is 

 also an inhabitant of the South Sea, and a much more 

 polar one in its locality than the preceding. It has 

 hitherto been met with only in the high latitudes of 

 the south, indiscriminately on the shores of the barren 

 lands and the margin of the ice. In some respects it 

 makes a slight approach to the eared seals; and it has 

 a rudimental external concha to the ears ; the body 

 is round and very thick at the middle part, but it 

 tapers to the head, which is small, and has the muzzle 

 much pointed ; the fore legs are short, and the hind 

 ones are drawn nearer to each other, with five short 

 lobes at the extremity ; and the claws are very small 

 or altogether wanting ; the hair is short, shining, and 

 laid flat to the skin ; the colour pale grey on the 

 upper part, sprinkled over with small whitish spots ; 

 and the under part of it is yellowish. It grows to the 

 length of seven or eight feet. Very little is known of 

 its manners, however, as it has not been met with 

 except in the extreme latitudes near the ice ; and 

 resting upon that rather than the land. Its value to 



the seal-fisher is far inferior to that of the great seal 

 which is so widely distributed over the southern ocean ; 

 because the places in which it is found are much 

 more hazardous, and the animal itself is smaller and 

 less productive of oil. The native locality of this seal 

 was not very well known until Weddell penetrated 

 so far to the southward ; and each of the specimens 

 (of which, however, there were very few) had a sepa- 

 rate name. It is probable that the one described by 

 Sir Everard Home, in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1822, and upon which F. Cuvier founded his 

 genus Stenorhyncus, is identical with this one ; in 

 like manner as it is probable that all the sea-elephants 

 which have been mentioned as found at different 

 places, and differently named, are really identical 

 with the one which we have described. The seals of 

 the South Sea are, however, an intricate portion of 

 Nature, and a long time will be required before they 

 are properly understood. 



OTARIA, or EARED SEALS. The distinguishing 

 characters of these which are the most essential to be 

 borne in mind are : the possession of an external 

 concha, which surrounds and covers the opening of 

 the ear ; the fore feet merely swimming paws, or 

 fins without the slightest vestige of claws, and placed 

 at the middle of the length of the body ; the hind 

 legs placed near to each other with strong straight 

 claws, and their swimming lobes very much produced ; 

 the incisives trenchant, and the cheek-teeth strong 

 and conical. They are often called bear-seals, or sea- 

 bears ; and they are the species the skins of which 

 are in request as furs. They are found in all the 

 three divisions of the sea to which we referred in 

 speaking of the seals ; but they are especially abun- 

 dant in the South Sea ; and there are either a number 

 of species there, or they are prone to run into varieties. 



1. NORTH ATLANTIC. There is only one eared 

 seal in this part of the world, and it is* confined to 

 the high latitudes, being rarely if ever found to the 

 south of Greenland. 



COMMON SEA-BEAR (O. Fubricii, or rather Groen- 

 landica). This species is small, and, with the excep- 

 tion of having external ears, it has as many points of 

 resemblance to the earless seals as to the eared seals 

 properly so called ; and hence many naturalists have 

 felt disposed to consider it as confined to the 

 Pacific and the South Sea. It is not, we believe, met 

 with upon any part of the coasts of Europe, or upon 

 those of Spitzbergen or Nova Zembla, but rather in 

 the western part of the Arctic Sea, and chiefly on the 

 west of Greenland. The fur is of a brown colour, 

 there is no mane on the neck, and the swimming 

 flaps of the hind feet are very bug. It is doubtful 

 whether some of the species which are found in the 

 North Pacific have not been mixed up in the descrip- 

 tions which have been given of this one. 



2. NORTH PACIFIC. The eared seals are far 

 more numerous here than they are in that part of 

 the North Atlantic in which they occur; but it is 

 doubtful whether they have not been to a certain 

 extent confounded with those of the south. They are 

 particularly called sea-lions or sea-bears, without much 

 regard to the distinctions of species. 



SEA LION (O. Stdlerii). This species has obtained 

 a number of names, being the sea lion of some and 

 the sea bear of others, the only title that it has to 

 either of these epithets being the mane upon the 

 neck. It has indeed something of the voice of a lion, 

 or at any rate it makes a loud and bellowing sound : 

 SS2 



