264 AMPHIBIOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



drowned like any other terrestrial animal. Thus 

 it seems superior in some respects to the inhabi- 

 tants of both elements, and inferior in many more. 

 Although furnished with legs, it is in some mea- 

 sure deprived of all the advantages of them.* 

 They are shut up within its body, while nothing 

 appears but the extremities of them, and these 

 furnished with very little motion, but to serve 

 them as fins in the water. The hind-feet, in- 

 deed, being turned backwards, are entirely use* 

 less upon land ; so that when the animal is ob- 

 liged to move, it drags itself forward like a reptile, 

 and with an effort more painful. For this purr 

 pose it is obliged to use its fore-feet, which, 

 though very short, serve to give it such a degree 

 of swiftness, that a man cannot readily overtake 

 it ; and it runs towards the sea. As it is thus 

 awkwardly formed for going upon land, it is sel- 

 dom found at any distance from the sea-shore, 

 but continues to bask upon the rocks j and, when 

 disturbed, always plunges down at once to the 

 bottom. 



The seal is a social animal, and, wherever it 

 frequents, numbers are generally seen together. 

 They are found in every climate, but in the north 

 and icy seas they are particularly numerous. It is 

 on those shores, which are less inhabited than 

 ours, and where the fish resort in greater abund- 

 ance, that they are seen by thousands, like flocks 

 of sheep, basking on the rocks, and suckling their 

 young. There they keep watch, like other gre- 



* BuflTon. 



