134 THE FUR SEAL. 



times ten or twelve feet in length, and of proportionate mag- 

 nitude of body. This seal migrates in families, the elder 

 ones leading the van, while the young follow confusedly 

 behind, playing, tumbling, and frisking along in the highest 

 enjoyment, and frequently in the extravagance of their fun, 

 flinging themselves quite out of the water. The sailors call 

 these antics *' seals' weddings. '^ 



Though the bearded seal does not yield much oil, yet its 

 fat is esteemed delicious by the northerners. The Harp 

 Seal, so named from a large black crescent-shaped mark on 

 each side of the back, belongs also to the ice regions, though 

 sometimes seen on the British coast. It attains the length 

 of eight, and even nine feet. 



The seal belongs to the Mammalia, or animals that suckle 

 their young, and constitute the family Fhocidoe. All the- 

 animals of this class are mainly aquatic, but also frequently 

 resort to land, or ice-islands, where they remain for days, and 

 even months, suckling their young, or basking in the sun 

 during the brief summer. The Fur Seal seems to posses* 

 remarkable powers of agility on land, often escaping when 

 pursued by the men running fast. They cannot walk, but 

 shuffle along, especially over the ice, very quickly. On land 

 the hind feet are never employed, nor the fore feet unneces- 

 sarily, but in moving forward it bends the hinder part of the 

 spine underneath it, thus making a kind of arch, and then 

 fixing the latter end, it suddenly straightens out the whole 

 body in front, and in a repetition of this movement consists 

 the peculiar kind of jerking leap for which these animals are 

 remarkable. When the seal ascends an ice-island or rock,. 

 the ease with which it accomplishes its purpose is wonderful 

 It then makes especial use of its fore paws, and those which, 

 have claws are implanted into them like so many grap- 

 pling-irons, and, having thus secured a fixed point, they raise; 

 their monstrous bodies with the greatest rapidity. The 

 general shape of a seal resembles i its trunk that of a fish 



