CHAPTER IV. 
THE FUR SEAL OR “SEA BEAR.” 
ITS RELATIVES. 
The fur seals, with their associates, the walruses and sea lions, constituting the 
suborder Gressigrada* (Allen), are obviously related to the bears. The animals 
comprising this group, among other characters, have plantigrade feet, the anterior 
limbs modified as oars, and with rudimentary. claws, if any. The postariar limbs 
bend forward at the knee and the long, webbed toes extend beyond the claws. Only 
the anterior limbs are used in swimming. The head and neck can be elevated as 
in the bear, and the external: ear is moderately developed. The animal can run or 
lope along the ground as do ordinary mammals, and with considerable rapidity. 
THE SEA BEAR AND TRUE SEAL. 
Much misconception as to the nature and habits of the far seals has-arisen from 
their supposed resemblance to the animals in the N orth Atlantic and elsewhere, 
called “seals.” The fur seal, . however, has no close affinity with the suborder 
Pinnipedia, ‘to which the true or earless ' seals belong.. The various forms of true or 
hair seals constituting the group Pinnipedia have the feet not truly plantigrade, short, 
with long claws. Only the posterior limbs are used in swimming, and these are not 
susceptible of bending forward at the knee. The animal, therefore, can not walk or 
lope at all, and only wriggles while on land. Its neck is short and it can scarcely 
raise its jen. It has no external ear. 
The internal structures of the animals show equally marked differences: The hair 
seals, whatever their origin, must come from a different parent stock, and their. 
relation to land carnivora is more remote. Beyond the fact that both fur seal and hair 
seal are carnivorous mammals, feeding on fish and adapted for life in the water, the 
two types have little in common. In both species the thick blubber under the skin 
goes with the life in cold water. The resemblances associated with aquatic habitat are 
only analogies and have no value in scientific classification. In structure, appearance, 
habits, disposition, and method of locomotion, they are entirely distinct, and their 
evolution as pelagic animals has been along separate lines. 
THE FUR SEALS OF THE ANTARCTIC, 
The fur seals of the world belong to two distinct groups or genera, closely related 
to the sea lions. One of these, the génus Arctocephalus, is widely distributed over the 
Antarctic oceans, where its members formerly existed in vast numbers along portions 
of the coasts of South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, as well 
*Called Remipedia in our preliminary report, page 12, but the name Gressigrada is earlier and 
includes the same forms. fe 
