496 WILD ANIMALS. 



alternately by a swaying movement of the body, and tlie animal 

 can travel along very rapidly. Occasionally it makes an attempt 

 at a gallop, but it is an awkward pace, for the gigantic feet, or 

 rather flippers, are used in a flaccid, fin-like manner, which 

 reminds one, as Buckland says, of Bob Ridley's shoes in nigger 

 performances. If the animal in the Zoological Gardens is watched 

 for some little time, it will be observed occasionally twisting itself 

 into queer attitudes, like a dog or a cat, stretching itself or 

 scratching its back for amusement. 



The body of these seals is singularly flexible. On this subject. 

 Dr. Murie ' says, " At one moment the entire body presents a long, 

 cylindrical, tapering cone ; in another, the body seems fore- 

 shortened, and the head and neck thrust out turtle-fashion to a 

 length as astonishing as unexpected to any visitor who may chance 

 to be near ; at other times the chest and abdomen become deep 

 and laterally flattened, while the back is arched like that of a 

 defiant cat. And so, waking and sleeping, walking or swimming, 

 there is a ceaseless change of relation in the figure and proportion 

 of the parts. This does not depend on mere change of atti- 

 tude, but also upon the unusually lithe and mobile nature of 

 the entire spinal column and ribs, furnished as these are with 

 an abundance of cartilaginous material and fibro-elastic liga- 

 ments." 



" The teeth," writes Mr. J. W. Clark,^ " are thirty-six in 

 number, twenty in the upper jaw and sixteen in the lower. Occa- 

 sionally there is a total of only thirty-four. There are always six 

 incisors in the upper jaw, distinguished by a deep furrow across 

 the longer axis of their crowns, and four in the lower; two 

 canines in each jaw, and usually six molar teeth above, and five 

 below on each side. The canines are of enormous size, and the 

 two outermost incisors of the upper jaw only a trifle smaller ; so 

 that when the jaws close, and the lower canine falls between these 

 two enormous teeth, anything that may happen to come between 

 them is held as in a vice. The molar" teeth are of uniform, or nearly 

 uniform, size and shape. They are soHd — so solid, indeed, that sailors 

 have mistaken them for flints — but from their diminutive size, it 

 ' " Zoological Transactions." = Contemporary Review, vol. xxvii. 



