LOCOMOTION ON LAND. 493 



travel on ; they travel by liftiog themselves from off the ice on 

 their fore legs or fore flij^iDers and hitching their body after them 

 with a kind of sidelong- loping gallop. An old Seal when on 

 level ice will outstrip a smart fellow in a distance of sixty yards, 

 provided the Seal is ten or twelve feet ahead of him." This ac- 

 count, though couched in rather untechnical language, indicates 

 a speed and manner of progression in the common Phocine Pin-' 

 nipeds not as yet generally recognized, and certainly surprising 

 from its rapidity. 



Scoresby also long since observed that although the Seals 

 " cannot be said to walk, as they do not raise their bodies oft' the 

 ground ; yet they shuffle along, especially over the ice, with sur- 

 prising speed."* 



Mr. H. W. Elliott has recorded a similar mode and rate of pro- 

 gression on land in the common Seal of Alaska {Phoca vitulina) 

 that has not, to my knowledge, been noted by other observers. 

 Says Mr. Elliott, " I desire also to correct a common error, made 

 in comj)aring Phocidce with Otariidcc, where it is stated that, in 

 consequence of the peculiar structure of their limbs, in the 

 former, their progression on land is ' mainly accomplished by a 

 wriggling, serpentine motion of the body, slightly assisted by 

 the extremities.' This is not so ; for, when excited to run or 

 exert themselves to reach the water suddenly, they strike out 

 quickly with both fore feet, simultaneously lift and drag the whole 

 body, without any wriggling whatever, from 6 inches to a foot 

 ahead and slightly from the earth, according to the violence of 

 the effort and the character of the ground ; the body then falls 

 flat, and the fore-flippers are free for another similar action, and 

 this is done so earnestly and rapidly that in attempting to head 

 off a young nearhi^ah from the water I was obliged to leave a 

 brisk walk and take to a dog-trot to do it. The hind feet are not 

 used when exerted in rapid movement at all, and are dragged 

 along in the wake of the body, perfectly limp. They do use 

 their posterior j)arts, however, when leisurely climbing up and 

 over rocks, or playing one with another, but it is always a weak 

 effort, and clumsy. These remarks of mine, it should be borne 

 in mind, apply only to the Phoca vitulina, that is found around 

 these islands at all seasons of the year, but in very small num- 

 bers." Mr. Elliott adds that he thinks this mode of locomotion 

 on land will be found to characterize all the species of the genus 

 PhocaA 



* Account of the Arctic Regions, vol. i, p. 509. 

 t Condition of Affairs in Alaska, p. 122. 



