MOTION OF SEALS. 313 



to be the dam of the slaughtered young one. The ma- 

 ternal instinct did not exhibit any stronger emotion 

 than this anxious vigilance. The young one was 

 sufficiently grown to be no longer dependent on the 

 mother. Had it been still sucking, there was enough 

 to show that the parental passion would have merged 

 fearlessness into fury, and inquietude for the safety 

 of its young, into unsparing vengeance for its fate. 



" Without doing more than referring to Weddell's 

 observation, that the jaw of the Seals he describes 

 was so powerful in the agonies of death as to grind 

 stones into powder, it seemed, from the condition of 

 the teeth of some eight that were taken during the 

 time Mr. Wilkie's party were on the Pedros, that 

 their strength is exercised in more laborious work 

 than crushing the bones of fishes. The opinion that 

 the more experienced fishermen expressed was, that 

 they fed as generally on molluscous animals as on fish, 

 and that their teeth suffered much wear and tear in 

 the work of breaking shells. Yet it is remarkable 

 that the contents of the stomachs of those killed 

 gave them no insight into the nature of their food : — 

 they were invariably empty. 



" I must not omit to mention that our friends had 

 one opportunity of closely observing the progression 

 of the Seal when ascending the beach. The advance 

 was by a succession of zigzag movements. It was 

 evident that the ground was first gripped by one 

 fore flipper, then by the other, that the body ad- 

 vanced first to the right, then to the left, as one 

 or the other fiipper took its hold of the earth, and 

 helped they body onward. The seemed to delight 



