SEALS 



95 



as to form chambers, or reservoirs, of considerable size. In these 

 it seems that the blood is stored up for a while, after it has passed 

 through the arteries, instead of being immediately sent on to be 

 purified in the lungs. Thus the animal is enabled to remain 

 without breathing beneath the 

 water for much longer than 

 would otherwise be possible. 



So, we see, the entire frame 

 of these remarkable animals is 

 most wonderfully adapted to 

 the peculiar conditions of their 

 life. 



Seals are found in many 

 parts of the world, but are 

 most plentiful in the Arctic 

 and Antarctic regions. We 

 may perhaps wonder how they 

 contrive to live in those frost- 

 bound latitudes, where even the 

 sea, during the greater part of 

 the year, is frozen over. It 

 would seem that the seals must 

 remain either upon the ice, in 

 which case they could procure 

 no food, or beneath it, when 

 they could obtain no air. 



But during the winter 

 months these animals always keep a number of passages open 

 through the ice by the simple act of continually passing through 

 it. Upon the ice, of course, is a layer of snow, often many feet 

 in thickness. The seals scoop this away just above their air- 

 holes, and so hollow out a large chamber, which is called by the 

 Esquimaux the seal's "igloo", or house. 



Upon a ledge of ice inside this "igloo" the baby seals are 

 usually kept. These are very odd little creatures, and at first 

 are nearly white, becoming darker by degrees. Their mothers 

 take great care of them, and, if danger should threaten, tuck their 



Igloo, or Seal's House {shown in section) 



