THE SEAL. 293 



ocean is not, except when some large fish has been 

 mangled in the vicinity, so thick as to be perceptible, it 

 could not well be gathered by the bill of a bird, and 

 therefore, the feathers on the breast of the petrel are 

 so contrived, that it can collect the oil as it swims, and 

 continue that operation until there be enough for being 

 taken with the beak. Both the condition and flesh of 

 the petrel are in favour of this kind of feeding. It is 

 so fat, that the inhabitants of some of the northern 

 islands make a kind of candles, by simply drawing a 

 wick through its body ; and its flesh is so rank and dis- 

 agreeable that even those who in a great measure subsist 

 upon sea-fowl, do not eat it. The little petrel is, 

 therefore, a kind of sea-scavenger, and removes the oil, 

 which, if it were to go on accumulating, would interfere 

 with the two important operations of the impregnation 

 of the air with water for the respiration and life of 

 fishes, and the evaporation of water for the formation 

 of rain and rivers. Thus we find that there is not a 

 production of nature, or even a function of one of 

 nature's productions, but which, when we examine it, is 

 essential to the existence of the individual, and at the 

 same time connects the individual with the whole. 



One of the most singular of nature's fishers, and one 

 which forms the best connecting link between sea animals 

 and land animals, properly so called, is 



THE SEAL. 



THE SEAL, which, except in external shape, is a per- 

 fect quadruped, resembles the otter more than any other 

 British animal in its swimming apparatus, but it is 

 more gentle in its disposition, and more easily tamed ; 

 2 c 3 



