394 



AMPHIBIOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



mals of passage, and perhaps the only quad- 

 rupeds that migrate from one part of the world 

 to another. The generality of quadrupeds are 

 contented with their native plains and forests, 

 and seldom stray, except when necessity or 

 fear impels them. But seals change their habi- 

 tation ; and are seen in vast multitudes direct- 

 ing their course from one continent to another." 

 On the northern coasts of Greenland they are 

 seen to retire in July, and to return again in 

 September. This time it is supposed they go 

 in pursuit of food. But they make a second 

 departure in March to cast their young, and 

 return in the beginning of June, young and 

 all, in a great body together, observing in their 

 route a certain fixed time and track, like birds 

 of passage. When they go upon this expedi- 

 tion, they are seen in great droves, for many- 

 days together, making towards the north, 

 taking that part of the sea most free from ice, 

 and going still forward into those seas where 

 man cannot follow. In what manner they re- 

 turn, or by what passage, is utterly unknown ; 

 it is only observed, that when they leave the 

 coasts to go upon this expedition, they are all 

 extremely fat, but on their return, they come 

 home excessively lean. 



The females, in our climate, bring forth in 

 winter, and rear their young upon some sand- 

 bank, rock, or desolate island, at some distance 

 from the continent. When they suckle their 

 young they sit up on the hinder legs, while 

 these, which are at first white, with woolly 

 hair, cling to the teats, of which there are four 

 in number, near the navel." In this manner 

 the young continue in the place where they 

 are brought forth, for twelve or fifteen days ; 

 after which the dam brings them down to the 

 water, and accustoms them to swim and get 

 their food by their own industry. As each 

 litter never exceeds above three or four, so the 

 animal's cares are not much divided, and the 

 education of her little ones is soon completed. 

 In fact, the young are particularly docile ; 

 they understand the mother's voice among the 

 numerous bleatings of the rest of the old ones ; 

 they mutually assist each other in danger, and 

 are perfectly obedient to her call. Thus early 

 accustomed to subjection, they continue to live 

 in society, hunt and breed together, and have 



Krar.tz, vol. i. p. 129. 



b Coeunt in littore resupinata femina. LIN. SVST. 



a variety of tones by which they encourage to 

 pursue or warn e^ch other of danger. Some 

 compare their voices to the bleating of a flock 

 of sheep, interrupted now and then by the 

 barking of angry dogs, and sometimes the 

 shriller notes of a cat/ All along the shore, 

 each has its own peculiar roek, of which it 

 takes possession, and where it sleeps when 

 fatigued with fishing, uninterrupted by any of 

 the rest. The only season when their social 

 spirit seems to forsake them, is that when they 

 feel the influences of natural desire. They 

 then fight most desperately; and the male that 

 is victorious keeps all the females to himself. 

 Their combats, on these occasions, are managed 

 with great obstinacy, and yet great justice", 

 two are never seen to fall upon one together ; 

 but each has its antagonist, and all fight an 

 equal battle, till one alone becomes victo- 

 rious. 



We are not certainly informed how long the 

 females continue pregnant ; but if we may 

 judge from the time which intervenes between 

 their departure from the Greenland coasts and 

 their return, they cannot go above seven or 

 eight months at the farthest. How long this 

 animal lives is also unknown: a gentleman, 

 whom I knew in Ireland, kept two of th< m, 

 which he had taken very young, in his house 

 for ten years ; and they appeared to have the 

 marks of age at the time I saw them, for they 

 were grown gray about the muzzle ; and it is 

 very probable they did not live many years 

 longer. In their natural state the old ones are 

 seen very fat and torpid, separated from the 

 rest, and, as it should seem, incapable of pro- 

 creation. 



As their chief food is fish, so they are very 

 expert at pursuing and catching it. In those 

 places where the herrings are seen in shoals, 

 the seals frequent and destroy them by thou- 

 sands. When the herring retires, the seal is 

 then obliged to hunt after fish that are stronger 

 and more capable of evading the pursuit : d 

 however, they are very swift in deep waters, 

 dive with great rapidity, and, while the spec- 

 tator eyes the spot at which they disappear, 

 they are seen to emerge at above a hundred 

 yards distance. The weaker fishes, therefore, 

 have no other means to escape their tyranny, 



c Linna>i Syst. 



d British Zoology, vol. i. p. 75. 



