238 PINNIPEDIA. 



Selc, Seolc, which remains almost unchanged in the 

 Scotch " Sealch." 



It appears highly probable that the myths of antiquity 

 were indebted to this group of animals for the form of 

 some of their fabled deities, particularly of the Tritons. 

 The rounded head with its strangely human expression, 

 the hand-like fore-feet and the conformation of the fin- 

 like hind limbs, so closely resembling the tail of a fish, 

 might easily suggest the idea of a being who was man 

 above and fish below. Still more probably is it that the 

 Mermaid of our own superstitions originated in the 

 appearance of some species of Seal in an unwonted 

 locality, a circumstance sufficient in the olden time to 

 give rise to a far more egregious violation of truth than 

 the conversion of the animal into a sea-maiden. The 

 only other creature which can have a claim to be re- 

 garded as the origin of this world-wide myth is the 

 Manatee, a point which will be alluded to hereafter. 

 We learn from Suetonius and Pliny that the skin of the 

 Seal — vitulus marinus — was believed by the Romans, and 

 among them by the Emperor Augustus, to be a protection 

 against lightning. 



In our first edition we enumerated five species of this 



group, namely, Phuca vitulina, Ph. grmnlandica, Ph. bar- 



bata, Halichierus gryphus, and Trichechus rosmarns. Of 



these we have resolved to omit Ph. barbata, for which 



the Gray Seal has often been mistaken, and of whose 



occurrence on our shores there is no good evidence.* In 



* It is true that the late Mr. MacgilliTray speaks of a Scotch specimen 

 in the Edinburgh University Museum (Naturalist's Library, Vol. XTII., 

 p. 112), but no trace of it can be found by our friend Prof. Turner, who has 

 kindly sought for it in the Museum of Science and Art, to which the Uni- 

 versity collection was transferred in 1854, nor is anything said by Macgil- 

 livray of its history. It seems probable that there was some mistake, either 

 in the identification of the species, or as to the locality whence it was 

 procured. 



