WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



pared with the size of the animal. They soon become 

 attached to any one who will take the trouble to feed 

 and pet them. 



ABE YOUNG SEALS BORN BLIND? 



There was at one time considerable controversy in the 

 daily papers on this subject, both sides strongly stating 

 opposite facts. The following extract is from the letter of 

 a skipper of a whaler, who had spent many years in the ice, 

 and who since that made the famous voyage in the £rin, 

 Mr. Leigh Smith's, to the Arctic regions : — " As regards 

 the young seals, they can see as soon as they are born, I 

 have shot the old seals in the act of giving birth to their 

 young, and I found that they could see ; and I have shot 

 old seals with the young in them, and I have found their 

 eyes open and quite clear. I have also seen a seal give 

 birth and make for the water at once, and the young ones 

 follow to the edge of the piece of ice after the mother. 

 Their eyes are quite bright at birth." 



To this question I am able to give a very positive 

 answer. On May 23, 1868, I purchased of a dealer in 

 Liverpool four adult seals. One of them proved to be in 

 young, and was consequently placed by herself in a suit- 

 able enclosure with a small pond. She soon became quite 

 tame, and fed freely. On June 8 she became restless, and 

 on the following day about twelve o'clock she produced a 

 young one, near the edge of the water. It was covered 

 with a, rather thick coat of hair, its eyes very Irightand wide 

 open ; it turned and rolled about, divesting itself of the 

 outer covering of hair, which formed a complete mat upon 

 which the young animal lay. For the first hour or 

 two after its birth it was very active, and within three 

 hours it was swimming and diving about in the water 



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