ig6 THE BOTTLE-NOSED SEAL. 



places, It will gush out at every one, and spotit to a 

 considerable distance. Lord Anson's sailors, to try 

 the experiment, shot one of them, and obtained 

 from it more than two hogsheads of blood. 



They seem to divide their time nearly equally be- 

 tween the land and sea ; continuing out during the 

 summer, and coming on shore at the commence- 

 ment of winter and residing there all that season. 

 When ashore, they feed on the grass and verdure 

 which grows on the banks of the fresh-water 

 streams ; and when not employed in feeding,- they 

 sleep in herds, in the most miry places they can 

 find. Each herd seems to be under the direction of 

 a large male ; which the seamen ludicrously stile the 

 Bashaw, from his driving off the other males from 

 a number of females which he appropriates to him- 

 self. These Bashaws, however, do not arrive at 

 this envied superiority without many bloody and 

 dreadful contests, of which their numerous scars ge- 

 nerally bear evidence. Their battles are very fre- 

 quent ; and when for the females, always extremely 

 furious. Some of Lord Anson's party observed, 

 one day, on the island of Juan Fernandez, what 

 they at first took for two animals of a kind different 

 from any they had before seen ; but, on a nearer 

 approach, they proved to be two of these Seals, 

 which had been goring each other witli their teeth 

 till both were completely covered with blood. 



They are of a lethargic disposition, and when at 

 rest are not easily disturbed. It is not difficult to 

 kill them ; being, in general, from their sluggish 

 and unwieldy motions, incapable either of escaping 



