CARNARIA. 105 
it is menaced, at which times the nostrils also are inflated like blad- 
ders. From the arctic ocean*. 
Finally, the Macrorurnus, Fr. Cuv., has the incisors of the preceding, 
obtuse conical molars, and the muzzle resembling a short moveable pro- 
boscis or snout. The largest seal known is of this subgenus; the 
Ph. leonina, L.; Sea Lion of Anson; Sea Wolf of Pernetty, &c. 
Peron’s Voy. I. xxxii. (The Elephant Seal) (a). From twenty to 
twenty-five feet in length; brown, the muzzle of the male terminated 
by a wrinkled snout, which becomes inflated when the animal is 
angry. It is common in the southern latitudes of the Pacific Ocean, 
at the Terra-del-Fuego, New Zealand, Chili, &c. It constitutes an 
important object of the fisheries, on account of the oil in which it 
abounds. The 
Orarises, Péron. Seals with external ears 
Are worthy of being formed into a separate genus; because, independently 
of the projecting external ears, the four superior middle incisors have a 
double cutting edge, a circumstance hitherto unknown in any animal; the 
external ones are simple and smaller, and the four inferior bifurcated. All 
the molars are simply conical, and the toes of the fore feet almost immov- 
able; the membrane of the hind feet is lengthened out into a slip beyond 
each toe; all the nails are flat and slender. 
Ph. jubata, Gm.; Sea Lion of Steller, Pernetty, &c.; Buff. Supp. 
VII. xlviii. From fifteen to twenty feet, and more, in length; fawn 
coloured; the neck of the male covered with hairs that are more 
frizzled and thickly set than those on the rest of the body. It might 
be said to be found in all the Pacific Ocean, were it not that those 
from the straits of Magellan seem to differ from such as are taken at 
the Aleutian islands. 
Ph. ursina, Gm.; Buff. Supp. VII. xlvii. (The Sea Bear). Eight 
feet long, no mane, varying from brown to whitish. From the north 
of the Pacific Ocean. Other seals are found in that sea which only 
differ from the ursina in size and colour: such is the Petit phoque 
noir of Buffon (Ph. pusilla), Buff. XIII. lili; the Yellow Seal of 
Shaw, &c. 
* The mechanism by which this inflation is effected is not yet well understood. 
See Dekay and Ludlow, Annals of the New York Lyceum, Vol. I. pp. 94 and 99. 
& (ac) Amuch more full and interesting account of the Sea Elephant, under the 
title of Phoca proboscidea, is given by two recent French travellers, Peron and Le 
Sueur. This is the species of seal which forms the great material of the English 
seal fishers off the islands in the neighbourhood of New South Wales. The fishery 
is now carried on periodically, and its object is to obtain the Sea Elephant, not on 
account of its flesh, but for the skin and oil which it is capable of yielding. The 
flesh is insipid and black, but still is consumed by the natives; the tongue alone is 
preserved by the English seamen; for, when properly cured, it is sold as a precious 
luxury. The fresh blubber of this animal is in the highest esteem amongst the 
sailors, as an easy, speedy, and most successful local remedy i in all sorts of wounds. 
The travellers just mentioned were informed by the Englishmen engaged in this oe- 
cupation at the island of King, that the animal, as soon as it has been killed, is 
skinned and sliced into small cube-shaped pieces, which are boiled in cauldrons ar- 
