HABITS OF SEALS. 17 



that of the other, but, with respect to this latter point, the 

 circumstance of their being killed after having been long 

 on land or the contrary makes a great difference ; in the for- 

 mer case it is much whiter, because the blood had become 

 more completely arterialized. Much also depends on age. 

 I never could bring myself to taste it, from its nauseous 

 carbonaceous smell, although I have once eaten, without 

 any repugnance, a piece of the flesh of the Ka-an (that 

 is, capable of being driven) whale, and could not dis- 

 tinguish it from tender beef. Neither species appears 

 to migrate. Very rarely an individual has been met with 

 a few miles from land, but this is quite a phenomenon, 

 and viewed as little less than an apparition of evil au- 

 gury. They are local, remaining during the year in the 

 vicinity more or less of their breeding places, — the tribes 

 attached to certain districts of coast not appearing to mix 

 with the others, and hence breeding within very near de- 

 grees of consanguinity. From this circumstance, and also 

 from the individuals of each separate clan being subjected 

 to differences of external agents which do not apply to 

 others, it may arise that slight dissimilarities in their ap- 

 pearance are observed between them, and this may, in some 

 countries, have given occasion to naturalists not intimately 

 acquainted with their habits and general aspect to multiply, 

 species. 



Of the two species, the barbata seems to have the power 

 of remaining the longer under water at a time. The extreme 

 period which I have observed is fifteen minutes ; this, how- 

 ever, was in the case of females taken in a net, and here the 

 strength of the animals might have been reduced by nurs- 

 ing and excessive exertion to get loose ; in a quiescent and 

 ordinary state, I should conclude they might remain twenty 

 minutes without breathing. This superior power of sus- 

 pending respiration possessed by cetacea, seals, and aqua- 



