436 THE HARP SEAL. 



knitted her brows, as is the fashion of the animal when 

 incensed, and making use at once of her fore paws and 

 her unwieldy strength, wrenched the weapon out of her 

 assailant's hand, overturned him on the sands, and 

 scuttled away into the sea without doing him any further 

 injury. Captain M'Intyre, a good deal out of countenance 

 at the issue of his exploit, just got to his feet in time to 

 receive his uncle's ironical congratulations on his safety, 

 and on a single combat worthy to be commemorated by 

 Ossian himself, " since," said the Antiquary, " your 

 magnanimous opponent hath fled, though not upon 

 eagle's wings, from the foe that was low. She walloped 

 away," he added, " with all the grace of triumph, and 

 has carried my stick off also, by way of spolia opima" 



The moral of which story is, that if the reader in 

 his sea-side wanderings should ever fall in with a plioca, 

 either asleep or awake, he will do well not to attack it, 

 unless armed with some better weapon than a walking- 

 stick. 



On the dreary shores of Greenland and Iceland, and 

 along the coast of the Arctic Ocean generally, from New- 

 foundland to the Sea of Kamtschatka, ranges the Harp 

 or Greenland Saddleback Seal (Phoca Groenlandica). It 

 is also found on the western shores of our own islands, 

 being occasionally conveyed thither by the western cur- 

 rents. Its fur is of a grayish-white colour. The back 

 is marked with a blackish horseshoe-shaped band, which 

 curves backwards from the shoulder to a point within a 

 few inches of the root of the diminutive tail. This band 

 is of irregular outline, and broadens laterally. The same 

 brownish-black shade colours the anterior part of the 



