^ COMMON" SEAL. 251 
of the ancients ; grounding his idea on the rougher 
and longer hair in that species^ which he thinks 
must have been alhided to by PHny, who speaks 
of a popular opinion that the hair of the Phoca, 
in the dried skin-, always roughens or rises up at 
the time of the reflux of the sea, and which the 
Count de BufFon thinks could not have been ima- 
gined of the common or present species, on ac- 
count of its short and close hair. Mr. Pennant, 
however, with much greater probability, supposes 
the present to be the ancient Phoca, since it agrees 
exactly with the description given by Aristotle, 
and which cannot be applied to the Mediterra- 
nean Seal. 
The size of the Seal varies, but its general 
length seems to be from five to six feet. The 
head is large and round: the neck small and 
short : on each side the mouth are situated seve- 
ral strong vibrissse or whiskers ; each hair being- 
marked throughout its whole length with nume- 
rous alternate contractions and dilatations. The 
parts about the shoulders and breast are very 
thick, and from thence the body tapers towards 
the tail. The eyes are large : there are no exter- 
nal ears : the tongue is bifid or cleft at the tip. 
The legs are so very short as to be scarcely per- 
ceptible; and the hinder ones are so placed as to 
be only of use to the animal in swimming, or but 
very little to assist it in walking; being situated 
at the extremity of the body, and close to each 
other. All the feet are strongly webbed, but the 
hind ones much more widely and conspicuously 
