PIED SEAL^ 
without fear about ships and boats • which 
may, he thinks, have given rise to the fable of 
Sea Nymphs and Syrens ^ and our fishermen 
have frequently seen two young Seals sucking;; 
their dam at the same time, while she stood 
in a perpendicular position amidst the waves. 
Even the comb, with which painters have 
depi6bed the Mermaid, may be accounted for^ 
without any very extravagant stretch of the 
imagination : by supposing, that these rivals of 
the poets in their love of the marvellous, 
having heard that one species of the Seal has 
a large comb ; placed an artificial weapon of 
that name in the hand of their Mermaid, in- 
stead of the comb-like excrescence, about five 
or six inches long, hanging from the end of 
the upper jaw of tlie male Sea Lion, as de- 
scribed by Dr. Parsons in the Pliilosophical 
Transactions. 
Dampier says, that Seals are seen by tlio'i- 
sands an the Island of Juan Fernandez, wdicrs- 
tfhe young bleat like hmhs : but that none arc 
found in the South Sea, north of tlie Equa- 
tor, till latitude 21 ; norrdid he ever see thciik 
in any part of the W e3t Indi-ss, except the Bay 
