74 VOYAGE TO SriTZBEKGEN. 



and legs of the Phocae, (if we may employ these 

 terms,) are wholly enveloped in the flesh of the 

 animal, the hands and feet being alone protruded ; 

 these too are webbed, and are instruments evidently 

 more calculated for swimming than moving on 

 land. 



This unaptness of organization is strongly dis- 

 played in the painful motion of the animal, which, 

 from the shortness of its legs, has to rest at every 

 step on its belly, until it prepares for a new advance. 

 Its agility, considering these defects, is indeed as- 

 tonishing, and is certainly the effect of great exer- 

 tion. 



The eloquent and ingenious Buffon was of 

 opinion that the Phocae approached to fish by a 

 still more decisive criterion. " They are the only 

 animals," says he, " which have thejbramen ovale 

 open, and which can therefore live without respiring, 

 and to whom water is as proper and suitable an 

 element as air." Theoretic views appear to have 

 here led this excellent writer into an error, as it is 

 now well known that the Phocag cannot remain long 

 in the water without coming to the surface to 

 breathe. 



The Phoca vitulina, by the English termedseal, 

 and by the French, phoque, is the most common 

 species of those animals in the north, and is dis- 



