THE MERMAID. 227 



side. He was very sensitive to musical sounds, as many 

 dogs are, and when a concert took place in the building 

 a high note from one of the vocalists would cause him 

 to utter a mournful wail, and to dive with a splash that 

 made the -water fly, the audience smile, and the singer 

 frown. 



Captain Scoresby tells us that he had seen the walrus 

 with its head above water, and in such a position that it 

 required little stretch of imagination to mistake it for a 

 human being, and that on one occasion of this kind the 

 surgeon of his ship actually reported to him that he had 

 seen a man with his head above water. 



Peter Gunnersen's merman (p. 212), who " blew up his 

 cheeks and made a kind of roaring noise " before diving, 

 was probably a "bladder-nose" seal. The males of that 

 species have on the head a peculiar pad, which they can 

 dilate at pleasure, and their voice is loud and discordant. 



The appearance and behaviour of Steller's "sea-ape," 

 described on p. 213, was, as he subsequently perceived, in 

 exact conformity with the observed habits of the sea-otter, 

 and they might, I think, be attributed, with almost equal 

 probability to one of the eared seals, the so-called sea-lions, 

 or sea-bears. Every one who has seen these animals fed 

 must have noticed the rapidity with which they will dive 

 and swim to any part of their pond where they expect to 

 receive food, and how, like a dog after a pebble, they will 

 keenly watch their keeper's movements, and start in the 

 direction to which he is apparently about to throw a fish, 

 even before the latter has left his hand. This may be seen 

 at the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, and, better than 

 anywhere else in Europe, at the Jardin d'Acclimatation, 

 Paris. It would be quite in accordance with their habits 

 that one of these Otaria should dive under a ship, and 



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