TAME SEALS. 183 



apparently not more than a fortnight old, which in a few weeks 

 became perfectly tame and domestica'ted, would follow me 

 about, eat from my hand, and showed unmistakable signs of 

 recognition and attachment whenever I approached. It was 

 fond of heat, and would lie for hours at the kitchen fire, raising 

 its liead to look at every new comer, but never attempting to 

 bite, and would nestle close to the dogs, who soon became quite 

 reconciled to their new friend. Unfortunately the winter after 

 I obtained it was unusually rough and stormy. Upon that wild 

 coast boats could seldom put to sea, and the supply of fish be- 

 came scanty and precarious. We were obliged to substitute 

 milk in its place, of which the seal consumed large quantities, 

 and as the scarcity of other food still continued, it was deter- 

 mined, in a family council, that it should be consigned to its 

 own element, to shift for itself. Accompanied by a clergyman, 

 who took a great interest in my pet, I rowed out for a couple of 

 miles to sea, and dropped it quietly overboard. Very much to 

 our astonishment, however, we found that it was not so easy to 

 shake it off. Fast as we pulled away it swam still faster after 

 the boat, crying all the time so loudly that it might easily have 

 been heard a mile away, and so pitifully that we were obliged 

 to take it in again and bring it home." 



A somewhat similar story is told in Maxwell's Wild Sports of 

 the West, where may be found a very interesting and touching 

 narrative of a tamed seal, which lived for several years with a 

 family, and which, although it was repeatedly taken out to sea 

 in a boat and thrown overboard, always found its way back 

 again to the house which it loved, even contriving to creep 

 through an open window and to gain access to the warm fireside. 



In the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris, there was, for some time, 

 a specimen of the marbled seal. Two little dogs, in the same 

 enclosure, amused themselves by mounting on its back, barking, 

 and even biting it — all of which the seal took in good part. 

 Sometimes it would pat them with its paw ; but this seemed 

 intended more to encourage than to repress their gambols. In 

 cold weather, they warmed one another by huddling together. 

 If the dogs snatched a fish from the seal's mouth, it bore the 

 loss patiently ; but it generally had a fight with another seal, 

 the sharer of its mess, imtil the weaker one sounded a retreat. 



Some few years ago a ^^ talking fish " was profitably exhibi- 

 ted in London and the principal provincial towns, at a shilling a 

 head. The fish was a species of seal, and the " talking " con- 

 sisted of a free translation of its natural cry into the words 

 ma-ma, or pa-pa, according to the fancy of the showman at 

 spectator. 



