LOCOMOTION ON LAND. 495 



quiveriug with their crawling, semivaulting gait, aud tlie animal 

 at such times manifesting great fatigue. Notwithstanding their 

 unwieJdiness, we have sometimes found them on broken and ele- 

 vated ground, fifty or sixty feet above the sea."* 



In describing the " Leopard " Seal of the California coast 

 {^'PJioca pealeil Gill"=P. vituUna), the same author says: "Its 

 terrestrial movements, however, are quite dilferent from those of 

 the Sea Lion, having a quick, shuftling, or hobbling gait, only 

 using its pectorals to draw itself along with, while a small jwr- 

 tion of the animal's belly alternately rests upon the ground, the 

 posterior part of the body, including the hind flippers, being 

 turned a little upward. The head and neck are slightly ele- 

 vated, also, when the animal is in its land-traveling attitude, but 

 the creatnre is not so erect as, nor does it present the imposing 

 appearance of, the Sea Lion, in its habits upon shore." f No 

 direct statement is made as to the extent of its land journeys, 

 but one is led to infer that it is not often seen far from the 

 water. 



From the foregoing it appears that the Phocine Seals gener- 

 ally have considerable power of movement upon land, though 

 usiag only the fore limbs iu terrestrial locomotion; and that not 

 only the Sea-Elephants, but the common Seals of the North At- 

 lantic are capable of moving quite freely when out of the water ; 

 and that their manner of progression at such times differs mainly 

 from that of the other Pinnipeds in their using only the fore 

 limbs, and in their not being able to raise the body fully from 

 the ground or ice. 



The Wahnises and the Otaries, as mentioned in the account 

 of these animals, not only use their hind limbs as a means of 

 locomotion on land, turning them freely forward, but move the 

 fore limbs alternately, actually " stepping " with them, as one 

 writer terms it, while the hind limbs are carried forward simul- 

 taneously by arching the back and " hitching " them up beneath 

 the bodv. In the Fur Seals, and in some of the smaller Sea 

 Lions, the walk is not only plantigrade with all the feet, but the 

 body is raised clear of the ground. The same is generally true 

 also of the larger Sea Lions and the Walruses, but according 

 to some writers the latter partly lose this power in old age, 

 either from indolence, obesity, or decrepitude. The larger spe- 

 cies appear to be simply less agUe, both in the water and out, 



* Marine Mammalia, p. 117. 

 t Ibid., p. 166, 



