THE FUE SEAL: PAEASITIC WOEMS. 85 



pounds, in the aggregate, of large pebbles, which, in grinding against one another, I believe, must 

 comfort the Seal by aiding to destroy, in a great measure, these intestinal pests. 



The Sea Lion is also troubled in the same way by a similar species of worm, and I preserved 

 the stomach of one of these animals in which there was more than ten pounds of stones, some of 

 them alone very great in size. Of this latter animal, I suppose it could swallow bowldors that 

 weigh two and three pounds each. I can ascribe no other cause for this habit among these animals 

 than that given, as they are the highest type of the carnivora, eating fish as a regular means of 

 subsistence, varying the monotony of this diet with occasional juicy fronds of sea-weed or kelp, 

 and perhaps a crab or such once in a while, provided it is small and tender or soft-shelled. I know 

 that the sailors say that the CallorMnus swallows these stones to " ballast" himself; in other words, 

 to enable him to dive deeply and quickly ; but I noticed that the females and the " Holluschickie" 

 dive quicker and swim better than the old fellows above specified, and they do so without any 

 ballast. They also have less muscular power, only a tithe of that which the '' Sea catch" possesses. 

 No, the ballast theory is not tenable. 



Akeival of the cow Seals at the eookbribs. — Between the 12th and 14th of June, the 

 first of the cow Sf'als, as a rule, come up from the sea ; then the long agony of the waiting bulls is 

 over, and Ihey signalize it by a period of universal, spasmodic, desperate flghiing among them- 

 selves. Though they have qoaxreled all the time from the moment they first landed, and continue 

 to do so until the end of the season, in August, yet that fighting which takes place at this date is 

 the bloodiest and most vindictive known to the Seal. I presume that the heaviest percentage of 

 mutilation and death among the old males from these brawls occurs in this week of the earliest 

 ai>pearance of the females. 



A strong contrast now between the males and females looms up, both in size and shape, 

 which is heightened by the air of exceeding peace and dove-1 ke amiability which the latter class 

 exhibit, in contradistinction to the ferocity and saturnine behavior of the males. 



Desckiption op the cow Seal. — The cows are from four to four and a half feet in hmgth 

 from head to tail, and much more shapely in their proportions than the bulls ; there is no wrapping 

 around their necks and shoulders of unsightly masses of blubber; their lithe, elastic forms, from 

 the first to the last of the season, are never altered ; this they are, however, enabled to keep, 

 because in the provision of seal economy, they sustain no protracted fasting period ; for, soon after 

 the birth of their young, they leave it on the ground and go to the sea for food, returning perhajjs 

 to-morrow, perhaps later, even not for several days in fact, to ag^in suckle and nourish it ; having 

 in the mean time sped far otf to distant fishing banks, and satiated a hunger which so active and 

 highly organized an animal must experience, when deprived of sustenance for any length of time. 



As the females come up wet and dripping from the water, they are at first a dull, dirty-gray 

 color, dark on the back and upper parts, but in a few hours the transformation in their appearance 

 made by drying is wonderful. You would hardly believe that they could be the same animals, lor 

 they now faiily glisten with a rich steel and maltese gray luster on the back of the head, the neclc, 

 and along down the spine, which blends into an almost snow-white over the chest and on the 

 abdomen. But this beautiful coloring in turn is again altered by exposure to the same weather; 

 for after a few days it will gradually change, so that by the lapse of two or three weeks it is a 

 dull, rufous-ocher below, and a cinereous brown and gr.iy mixed above. This color they retain 

 throughout the breeding season, up to the time of shedding their coat in August. 



The head and eye of the female aie exceedingly beautifijl ; the expression is really attractive, 

 gentle, and intelligent; the large, lustrous, blue-back eyes are humid and soft with the tenderest 

 expression, while the small, well formed head is poised as gracefully on her neck as can be well 



