428 A LARGE-BRAINED ANIMAL. 



said that its power of vision is superior to that of the 

 whale, and it is able to distinguish objects at some dis- 

 tance. 



Its hearing must necessarily be imperfect, because it 

 possesses no external organ to collect and transmit sounds. 

 It is probably deficient in sense of smell ; and as for taste, 

 there is so little variety in its food, for it lives chiefly 

 upon fish, that it can but seldom, and only to a slight 

 extent, be called into requisition. It is instinct, we sus- 

 pect, rather than taste, which confines the animal almost 

 exclusively to one kind of fish. At least, in captivity, it 

 will refuse all fish to which it has not been accustomed. 

 We may admit, however, that this apparent fastidiousness 

 may be the result of habit. 



It will be seen, then, that, from our human point of 

 view, the organization of the seal is defective, and that 

 the senses are but partly developed. Yet, as a writer re- 

 marks, it is able to derive from its limited sensations a 

 result much superior to that obtained by many animals 

 of an apparently more favourable organization. For it is 

 endowed with a large and vigorous brain ; a brain rich in 

 circumvolutions ; a brain which, in not a few individuals, 

 is even proportionately more voluminous than it is in 

 man. Hence, it has been found possible to tame the seal ; 

 to accustom it to the sound of the human voice ; and 

 to teach it the performance of various devices. A " per- 

 forming seal " is by no means an infrequent exhibition 

 in our great cities. Numerous experiments have shown 

 that the animal is capable of the emotions of gratitude 

 and attachment ; and when captured young, and humanely 

 treated, it will exhibit a dog-like affection for its owner. 



