ANIMALS. 387 



an aquatic life ; we next saw the beaver with the hinder parts 

 covered with scales, resembling those of fishes ; and we now come 

 to a class of animals in which the shape and habits of fishes still 

 more apparently prevail, and whose internal conformation attaches 

 (hem very closely to the water. The seal, in general, resembles a 

 iiuadruped in some respects, and a fish in others. The head is 

 round like that of a man ; the nose broad like that of the otter ; 

 the teeth like those of a dog ; the eyes large and sparkling ; no 

 external ears, but holes that serve for that purpose ; the neck is 

 well proportioned and of a moderate length ; but the body 

 thickest where the neck is joined to it. From thence the ani- 

 mal tapers down to the tail, growing all the way smaller like a 

 fish. The whole body is covered with a thick bristly shining 

 hair, which looks as if it were entirely rubbed over with oil ; 

 and thus far the quadruped prevails over the aquatic. But it 

 is in the feet that this animal greatly differs from all the rest of 

 the quadruped kind ; for though furnished with the same num- 

 ber of bones with other quadrupeds, yet they are so stuck on the 

 body and so covered with a membrane, that they more resemble 

 fins tl.an feet ; and might be taken for such, did not the claws 

 with which they are pointed show their proper analogy. In the 

 fore feet or rather hands, all the arm and the cubit are hid under 

 the skin, and nothing appears but the hand from the wrist down- 

 wards ; so that if we imagine a child with its arms swathed down 

 and nothing appearing but its hands at each side of the body, to- 

 wards the breast, we may have some idea of the formation of 

 this animal in that part. These hands are covered in a thick 

 skin, which serves like a fin for swimming ; and are distinguished 

 by five claws, which are long, black, and piercing. As to the hind 

 feet, they are stretched out on each side of the short tail, covered 

 with a hairy skin like the former, and both together, almost 

 joining at the tail; the whole looks like the broad flat tail of a 

 fish ; and were it not for five claws which appear, might be 

 considered as such. The dimensions of this animal are various, 

 being found from four feet long to nine. They difl^er also in 

 their colours ; some being black, others spotted, some white, 

 and many more yellow. It would therefore be almost endless 

 to mention the varieties of this animal. Buffon describes three .- 

 and Kiantz mentions five, all difltrent from those described by 

 the other. I might, were I fond of such honours, claim th<2 



2 k2 



