117 



CHAP. IX. 



SEALS AND WALRUSES. 



The Manatees and the Dugongs.— The Seals and the Esquimaux.— King Menelaue 

 in a Seal's Skin. — Barbarous Persecutions of the Seals in Bearing's Sea and the 

 Pacific.— Adventures of a Sealer from Geneva.— The Sea Calf.— The Sea Bear. 

 — His Parental Affection. — The Sea Lions. — The Sea Elephant. — The Arctic 

 Walrus.— The Boats of the " Trent" fighting -with a Herd of "Walruses.— The 

 White Bear.— Touching Example of its Love for its Young.— Chase of the Sea 

 Otter. 



The Manatees or Lamantins of the Atlantic Ocean, and the now 

 nearly extinct Dugongs of the Indian seas, form the connecting 

 link between the real whales and the seals and walruses. Like 

 the whales, these animals have no hind feet, and a powerful 

 tail, which is their chief instrument of locomotion ; they are 

 distinguishable, however, from them by less fin-like, more 

 flexibly-jointed anterior extremities, on which they lean while 

 cropping the sea-weeds on the shallow shores. When they raise 

 themselves with the front part of their body out of the water, a 

 lively fancy might easily be led to imagine that a human shape, 

 though certainly none of the most beautiful, was surging from 

 the deep. Hence they have been named sea-sirens, mermaids, 

 and mermen, and have given rise to many extravagant fictions. 

 Their intelligence is very obtuse, but their stolid calf-like 

 countenance indicates great mildness of temper. 



They live at peace with all other animals, and seem to be 

 solely intent upon satisfying their voracious appetite. Like the 

 hippopotamus, they swallow at once large masses of sea-plants 

 or of juicy grasses growing beyond the water's edge on the 

 borders of rivers. 



The Manatees, or Sea-cows, as they are familiarly called, 

 inhabit the coasts and streams of the Atlantic between 19° 

 S. lat. and 25° N. lat., and attain a -length of from eight to 

 ten feet. Humboldt compares the flesh to ham, and Von 



