300 



TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



beef or pork, or bear's flesh, which it readily ate. It had 

 its likes and dislikes, and its favourites on board whom 

 it instantly recognised. It became exceedingly irritated 

 if a newspaper was shaken in its face, when it would run 

 open-mouthed all over the deck after the perpetrator. 

 Sometimes it would run at a clumsy rate into the sur- 

 geon's or captain's cabins, or from one side of the ship 

 towards the other and back again, in imitation of such 

 a movement (' sallying ') on the part of the sailors. It 

 lay during the day basking in the sun, lazily tossing its 

 flippers in the air, and appearing perfectly at home. One 

 day the captain tried it in the water for the first time ; 

 but it was quite awkward and got into the floe, where it 

 was unable to extricate itself till its master went out on 

 the ice and called it by name, when it immediately came 

 out from under the ice and was, to its great joy, safely 

 assisted on board again, apparently heartily sick of its 

 mother element. It lived a little over three months." 



Mr. Lamont captured several young walruses ; three 

 of them were kept in a pen on board ship together. One 

 of them " Tommy," was a great pet, but to the general 

 grief he was one day found dead, with his face immersed 

 in a pail of gruel, and one of the others lying on the top 

 of him — clearly sufibcated. 



On revie^^ang the facts herein stated, it will be seen 

 that the sea-lion belongs to a group of aquatic four-legged 

 beasts which is divisible into three groups : (i) eared 

 seals, (2) walruses, and (3) true seals, of the first of 

 which three it is a member. The whole group is con- 

 sidered to rank as an " order," known from the peculiar 

 modification of their paws, as the order of Pinnipedia. 



But to what other order of beasts are the Pinnipeds 

 allied ? There can be no doubt that they are allied to 

 the Carnivora, or beasts of prey, and not at all to the 

 porpoises and dolphins — though these latter are also 

 aquatic, warm-blooded beasts, and not fishes. Neverthe- 



