326 



VERTEBliATA. 



fire for the night; something scrut<h<< 1 gently at the door; it was of course the watch-dog; she 

 opened the door, and in came the seal! Wearied with Ids long and unusual voyage, lie testified 

 by a peculiar cry, expressive of pleasure, Ids delighl to find himself at home, then stretching him- 

 self before the glowing embers of the hearth, he fell into a deep sleep. 



"The master of the house was immediately apprised of this unexpected and unwelcome visit. In 

 this exigency, th«' old dame was awakened and consulted ; she answered that it was always un- 

 lucky to kill a seal, but suggested that the animal should be deprived of sight, and a third time 

 carried out to sea. To this hellish proposition the besotted wretch who owned the house con- 

 sented, and the affectionate and confiding creature was cruelly deprived of sight on the hearth 

 for which he had resigned his native element! Next morning, writhing in agony, the mutilated 

 seal was embarked, taken outside Clare Island, and committed to the waves. A week passed 

 over, and things became worse instead of better; the cattle died fast, and the infernal hag con- 

 d thai her arts were useless, and that the destructive visitations upon the cattle exceeded her 

 skill and cure. 



••< >n the eighth night after the seal had been committed to the Atlantic, it blew tremendously, 

 in the pauses of the storm, a wailing noise was at times faintly heard at the door; the servants 

 who slept in the kitchen concluded that the Banshee had come to forewarn them of an approach- 

 ing death, and buried their heads in the bed-coverings. When morning broke, the door was 

 opened: the seal was there, lying dead upon the threshold ! The skeleton of the once plump an- 

 imal — for, poor beast, it perished from hunger, being incapacitated, by blindness, to procure its 

 customary food — was buried in a sand-hill, and from that moment, misfortunes followed the 

 abettors and perpetrators of this inhuman deed. The detestable hag who had denounced the in- 

 offensive seal was, within a year, hanged for the murder of her own grandchild. 



"Every thing about the devoted house melted away: sheep rotted, cattle died, and the corn 

 was blighted. Of several children, none reached maturity, and the hard-hearted proprietor sur- 

 vived every thing he loved or cared for. He died blind and miserable. There is not a stone of 

 thai accursed building standing upon another. The property has passed to a family of a different 

 name, and the series of incessant calamity which pursued all concerned in this cruel deed is as 

 romantic as true." 



THE COMMON SEAL, 



Genut ( A LL< m 'KI'liA id'S : Cullonphulus of F. Cuvier. — Of this there are several species. 

 the most noted of whirl, is the Sea-Caw, or Common Seal, C. vitulinus, the Phoca ritulina o' 

 Linnaeus, the Veau Marin of the French, Vecckio Marino of the Italian-. Meerwplf and Meerhund 

 of the Germans, Lobo Marino of the Spanish. The ground-color of the hair or skin, when thi; 



