52 THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 



(sea lions and sea bears), or " Fur-seals," as they are 

 variously called, differ from the " Hair-seals," among 

 other things, in having a close velvety under-fur, which 

 forms the " sealskin " of commerce. Now, in one of the 

 " eared-seals " (Otaria jubata), an Australian species, 

 this under-fur is met with in the cub alone. Thus, were 

 the adult alone known, it would form a curious exception 

 to a universal rule ; but the young one shows us that this 

 species, as a matter of fact, forms no exception to this 

 rule. 



Man himself forms our second illustration. His body 

 is a living museum of relics of an ancient order of things, 

 demonstrating more eloquently than mere words do, his 

 kinship with the unlovely, hairy apes. In the process 

 of that transformation which has given the " paragon of 

 animals " his finely finished body, the loss of this hair 

 has been a most conspicuous feature. Yet just before he 

 makes his entry into the world he is made, for a short 

 space, to don a vesture of hair reminiscent of the old 

 Adam — for a short space his nakedness is masked by a 

 dense covering of fine hairs. But these are hastily removed, 

 so that at birth there is no witness of this lowly origin. 

 Only in these latter days has the spirit of inquiry and the 

 power of divination sprung up amidst us, and thereby we 

 have made the chastening discovery that we are indeed 

 a little lower than the angels. 



For the most part the study of this evidence is possible 

 only to those who have by special training acquired the 

 key to interpretation ; but there are one or two facts, 

 which, ever since man came into being, have been con- 

 fronting every adult in the community, though unrealised 

 till recently. These facts concern babies in their earliest 

 infancy. 



