THE CAPE SEA LION 
of Nature. The ancestors of seals, en- 
.compassed by enemies against which they could 
not successfully contend, and finding a plentiful 
supply of food in the water, gradually became 
aquatic in their habits; and in the course of ages 
the body assumed a more rounded shape ; the under 
fur grew closer and finer, and the feet developed 
a flipper-like form perfectly adapted for propelling 
the animal swiftly through the water. 
The Cape Sea Lion or Hair Seal belongs to a 
different family, and is quite distinct from the true 
seals of the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The 
chief difference is that the Sea Lions are able to 
use their hind limbs to aid them in climbing rocks 
and waddling along on land by bringing them 
forward under the body; whereas the hind limbs 
of the true seals stick out straight behind, and 
cannot be brought forward, except in the case of a 
few species which can bring them forward to a 
limited degree. Another difference is the Sea 
Lion has external ears, whereas true seals do not 
possess them. 
‘The Cape Sea Lion, like all the seal tribe, is just 
an ordinary flesh-eating or carnivorous, warm- 
blooded, air-breathing animal which lives in the 
sea, and is not, as popularly supposed, a kind of 
fish. They are in reality four-footed animals 
which have become adapted to the environment 
in which they live. 
Sea Lions inhabit the coasts of South Africa 
181 
