192 DIVISION I. VEKTEBKAL ANIMALS. — CLASS I. IIAMMALIA. 



social enjoyment, anil a corresponding capability for feeling sorrow and grief 

 when tlietic enjoyments are intercepted, distinguish all of the species. They 

 are all e(]ually sportive and frolicsome, enlivening the seas aud regions which 

 they inhabit with their fantastic gambols. Captain Scoresby, in his "Arctic 

 Hegions," thus records his observations on this point : " When coming to the 

 surface to respire, the seals often raise tlieir whole bodies out of the water ; 

 their progress is prett}' rap>id, their action appears frisky, and their general 

 conduct is productive of amusement to the spectator. Tlie sailors, when 

 they discover such a shoal, call it a 'seal's wedding.'" 



These animals appear naturally to repose eontidence in man; and when a 

 young seal happens to stray from the protection of its parent, and by acci- 

 dent meets with a man, it will f illow him with wistful looks, as if asking for 

 his assistance and care. la illustration of this mysterious instinct, which 

 seems to attract them to human beings, a tra\eller in Scotland relates the 

 following interesting incident: "A little islet in (Jrkney had long been a 

 I'avoritc haunt of numerous seals, which had become more than usually tame 

 from the care of the proprietor of the adjoining island to prevent their being 

 molested. On visiting that gentleman,! found the seals exhiliited their 

 wonted confidence in those who approached their protected haunt. .Several 

 of them swam along the shore, as a party of six or eight persons walked 

 along the beach, and did not generally keep farther from us than thirty or 

 forty yards : when we turned, so did they, and « hen we reentered our boat, 

 they followed it fjr a considerable distance." 



The missionary Cotlanco ascribes a simihu- character to the seals of the 

 southern hemisphere. " Xear the Island of Lobos, in the liiver Plata," he 

 says, " sea wolves ajipear in vast multitudes; they meet the ship, and will 

 even hang to the sides by their paws, and seem to stare at and admire the 

 crew." 



Another interesting account of the confiding nature of the seal is fur- 

 nished bv the Rev. jMr. Dunbar, of Scotland. ""While my pupils and I 

 were bathing, which we often did, in the I)os(jm of a beautiful bay in the 

 island, numficrs of these creatures in\ariably made their appearance, espe- 

 cially if the weather was calm and sunny, and the sea smooth, crowding 

 around us at the distance of a few yards, and looking as if they had some 

 kind 111' a notion that we were of the same species, or at least genus, with 

 themselves. The gambols in the water of my playful compHuions seemed to 

 excite them, and make them course round us with greater rapidity and ani- 

 mation." 



The naturalist Low also says, "If people are passing in boats, the seals 

 often come close u[) to them, and stare at them, following for a long time 

 together; if people are speaking loud, they seem to wonder what maybe 



