192 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



cavity was so full that tlie abdomen was tumid and swollen like an inflated skin. 

 Hence, when the common coverings and muscles of the abdomen were removed and the 

 peritoneum received ever so sliglit a wound, the wind came out with such a whistle and 

 hum as it is wont to come from an aeolipile. For the same reason the whole abdomen 

 is covered with a very strong double, membranous, fibrous peritoneum for holding in 

 the intestines. The peritoneum reaches from the os pubis to the sternum, and is 

 attached on both sides to the false ribs, from each one of which strong tendons, 

 spreading out in many rectilinear branches, run from both sides to the linea alba; and 

 when the muscles of the abdomen on the surface of the peritoneum are removed the 

 tendons meeting each other and crossing each other make the surface of the peritoneum 

 tessellated like a checkerboard, and present a pleasing spectacle to the eye. Other like 

 tendons grow from the inner side of the ribs and are seen to intertwine [impexi) tightly 

 with the peritoneum on the inside, increasing its firmness as with horizontal processes. 

 Both membranes run into a single one in the middle about the linea alba, but toward 

 the sides they are double. 



When the p(!ritoneum is cut the intestines gush out violently, and without any 

 outside assistance they move from their original place, because they are found always 

 so tightly stuffed that from oesoi)hagus to anus they make a solid pack without any 

 open space. Tlie thin intestines are smooth, rolled np in a great amount of fat; they 

 are round and inches broad in diameter. If only a very slight aperture should be 

 made with the ])oint of a knife, the liquid excrement (a ridiculous thing to behold) would 

 squirt out violently like blood from a ruptured vein; and not infre(|nently the face of 

 the spectator wtmld be drenched by this springing lountain whenever some one opened 

 a canal upon his neighbor opposite, for ;i joke. 



The coecnm was very large, as was also- the colon, and by a ligament that extended 

 lengthwise on either side was divided into many little cells. But the valve of the colon 

 I could not find, search as I might. To be brief, the intestines were different from a 

 horse's in size and capacity alone, but not in structure. And so the final product of 

 this workshop is so like the excrement of horses, in shape, size, smell, and color, and 

 all other attributes, that it would deceive the most expert stable boy. And I will 

 not deny that on the first days after our arrival on the island I was ignominiously 

 deceived; I considered it no slight marvel, but I did not make the boast to have found 

 what the boys did in tlie beans {faba; fahula (?)), when I found the stuff" frozen 

 together and so inexplicable {cimmelium). Now, I, not knowing from whence it came, 

 argued from utterly false premises to an absolutely true conclusion that America lay 

 opposite this island and not far away (for up to that time the continent had not been 

 seen on account of the autumnal fog). But since horses ai-e not kept in Kamchatka, 

 but are kept in parts of Ainerica, the fact that the dung was brought over there 

 whole and not dissolved, was an unquestionable proof of the proximity of laud. 



The whole intestinal tract, from gullet to anus, when this Augean stable was 

 thoroughly cleansed, measured fully 5,908 inches, and so the intestines are twenty and 

 a half times as long as the whole living animal. 



The mesentery is exceedingly thick and half covered with a mass of little glands, 

 varying in size from that of the acorn to that of the walnut. The lacteal, as well as 

 the lymphatic vessels, I could not observe because of tlie opacity of the very fat, thick 

 mesentery, although I searched while the intestines Avere still warm, for the veins are 

 only obscurely and darkly transparent, inasmuch as they are as thick as one's finger. 



