180 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



where the curious and venturesome inquiries of Europeans have not yet penetrated; 

 and so no one has been able to examine their contents. Thus it stands with the animals 

 of the sea as compared with the animals of the land. Some live anywhere and every- 

 where, and through long association come to vary their species in accordance with 

 differences of climate and food, not only in respect to size and color, but also in respect 

 to the softness and thickness of their hair; but when transferred to a different climate, 

 after a long interval of time they lose again their sj)eciHc difference and revert to the 

 first. So European horses when transferred to Siberia become perceptibly smaller and 

 hardier; and, on the other hand, when taken to India or China they become so much 

 slighter and smaller that after a lapse of time they form a peculiar species. Yakut 

 cattle when transported to Kamchatka become not only larger, but more prolific; and 

 this is the case also with cattle tliat are sent to the port of Arcliangel. With English 

 sheep that are taken to Sweden on account of the excellence of their wool, not only 

 the wool changes after a short time, but also their size. If one did not observe this, 

 it would seem that the species of animals increased gradually in Siberia alone; for 

 example, the scjuirrels on the Obi are large, and covered with long, ashy gray fur; 

 Obdoric squirrels are one third smaller, and covered with short but thicker fur; Bar- 

 gusian squirrels are covered with black, and Werchoian squirrels are mottled with 

 black and ashcolored fur. All this difference, as far as concerns size and thickness 

 of fur, is due to climate, and as far as concerns the color it is due to the food. Where 

 evergreen lai'ches, or, as they are commonly called, spruce and i)ines, grow, there the 

 fur is a bright, ashy gray; where the larches are deciduous, there they grow with 

 black fur. 



Among ajiinnils the seal (phoca) is the only (me which lives not onlj" in every part 

 of the ocean, but in the Baltic Sea, the Caspian Sea, and lakes which have no com- 

 munication with the sea, as in Lakes liaikal and Oron ; it is found everywhere at all 

 times of the year. Notwithstanding, this difference occurs, that the ocean seal {phoca 

 oceanica) is more common and is distinguished in color from all the rest; it is covered 

 with muddy gray fur, and on the back of its body it has a large spot that is chestnut 

 colored and covers oiuvthird of the whole hide. 



Now, I divide seals into three varieties on the basis of size. (1 ) The largest, which 

 is greater in size than a bull, grows only in the eastern ocean from the degrees 5G to 

 59 north latitude, and is called by the Kamchatkans " Lachtal-.^'' (2) Those of medium 

 size are all as large as a tiger, and are marked with many smaller spots. (3) The 

 smallest ones — the ocean seal, for example — are found in the Baltic Sea, as well as 

 in the ])ort of Archangel, in Sweden, Norway, America, and Kainchatka, and in fresh- 

 water lakes. They are monochroiis; that is, of one color; for example, those found 

 in Baikal are of a silvery gray cohu'. If we inquire why this sort of amphibian alone 

 lives in every 0(;ean and lake, I reply, because it lives upon a sort of food which is to 

 be had everywhere in the world, and upon Hesh. But the case of the sea cow {Mnnatee) 

 is different. It feeds only upon certain sorts of sea weeds not found everywhere, and 

 on account of the structure of its body can not live everywhere even in shallow places. 

 But the sea otter, although it lives upon crustaceans and shellfish, can not find this 

 sort of food everywhere beneath a certain depth of water on account of its closed 

 foramen ovale; and hence it inhabits the rocky, lugged, shallow shoals of America, of 

 the islands in the channel, and of the land of Kamchatka. The sea lion and the sea bear 

 are migratory animals, and seek the recesses of the sea and uninhabited islands in the 



