COMMON SEAL. 251 



of the ancients ; grounding his idea on the rougher 

 and longer hair in that species, which he thinks 

 must have been alluded to by Pliny, who speaks 

 of a popular opinion that the hair of the Phoca, 

 in the dried skin, always roughens or rises up at 

 the time of the reflux of the sea, and which the 

 Count de BufFon thinks could not have been ima- 

 gined of the common or present species, on ac- 

 count of its short and close hair. Mr. Pennant, 

 however, with much greater probability, supposes 

 the present to be the ancient Phoca, since it agrees 

 exactly with the description given by Aristotle, 

 and which cannot be applied to the Mediterra- 

 nean Seal. 



The size of the Seal varies, but its general 

 length seems to be from five to six feet. The 

 head is large and round: the neck small and 

 short : on each side the mouth are situated seve- 

 ral strong vibrissas or whiskers ; each hair being 

 marked throughout its whole length with nume- 

 rous alternate contractions and dilatations. The 

 parts about the shoulders and breast are very 

 thick, and from thence the body tapers towards 

 the tail. The eyes are large : there are no exter- 

 nal ears : the tongue is bifid or cleft at the tip. 

 The legs are so very short as to be scarcely per- 

 ceptible ; and the hinder ones are so placed as to 

 be only of use to the animal in swimming, or but 

 very little to assist it in walking; being situated 

 at the extremity of the body, and close to each 

 other. All the feet are strongly webbed, but the 

 hind ones much more widely and conspicuously 



