220 Selous: Observations on the Grey Seal. 
this one, another lying on the rocks, considerably smaller, 
and which, by all the signs—umbilical cord, blood close by, 
etc.—could not have been born above an hour or so ago. It 
could, therefore, have had no previous experience of mankind, 
and I particularly noted (wishing to test the matter) that it 
moved its head towards my hand and even made immature 
snaps at it, when I touched it onthe body, thereby proving that 
distrust of, and hostility to humanity must be instinctive in 
this Seal, and not either taught it by its mother, or gained 
through individual experience. This fact is interesting and 
I do not see how it could be better proved. Now how did this 
fear of man, or of enemies in which man is included, come into 
the possession of our newly born Seal? Must it not have been 
through a long road of previous individual experiences, each 
one of which marked a mental impression (having its physio- 
logical analogue) on the brain? Ifso, were not such impressions 
acquired characters? These actions of the baby Seal were 
not like mere general response to. stimulus. Though weak, 
and, as it were, clouded through its own weakness and im- 
maturity, yet one got clearly that suggestion of intent and 
individuality which would appeal to a sportsman as vicious- 
ness. I find it difficult to believe that such characterised 
movements can be due to a process of natural selection, with 
which impressions gained through the senses in their re-actions 
to the external world had nothing to do, as being brought 
to bear on the non-somatic cells only. In two other young 
Seals whose acquaintance I made on the way here, on an island 
too exposed to heavy seas to make it advisable to stay there, 
and who might have looked upon the world for a full week or 
ten days perhaps, the hostility referred to was more developed, 
having the greater vigour of their greater age. 
The shed was put up upon a high-standing, flat-topped 
rock which just accommodated it, and stood just between 
a little sea-pool, either left or sprayed up by the tide, in which 
the elder young Seal was now domiciled, and the newly-born 
one on the rocks about twelve paces off. No mother came out 
upon the rocks for about two hours, as I should conjecture, 
after the party had gone. Both the young seals cried, the 
younger one more weakly and sharply than the other. It is 
difficult to find a special word for this sound, neither bellow, 
bleat, nor low suiting it. It is more like a moaning, the 
intonation being very human, and often resembles—to the 
extent, indeed, of being most painful to hear—the bitter crying 
ofachild. For this description, however, to be fully justified, 
the desire of the calf for nourishment must be acute, and its 
age, as I should think, at least a week. 
After the two hours or so I have conjectured, a grown 
female Seal swam right into the shore, and began to ascend the 
Naturalist, 
