SEALS 
of fish-eating birds, and also by the large predaceous fishes 
that live upon the smaller fry ; the apparently inexhaust- 
ible source is so wonderfully marvellous that the most 
fertile imagination almost fails to realize the possibility of 
a continuance of this state of things. 
Whatever we may know of the abundance of animal life 
on land is totally eclipsed by the mighty myriads of 
creatures that swarm in the ocean, who aid to support in 
endless ways the fowls of the air and the beasts of the 
field, for the vast quantities of fish captured are frequently 
turned upon the land to enrich the soil, for want of other 
and better uses. 
According to the official report made to the juries of 
the Exhibition of 1851 by Nicholay and Son, the number 
of northern seal-skins imported to England annually would 
exceed 500,000, and probably an equal number are 
annually killed in the Southern Ocean. Now, taking each 
animal to consume the minimum allowance of 10 lbs. 
weight of fish daily, it would require U}3 wards of 2232 tons 
of fish per day to feed this multitude of seals. Now, sup- 
posing these fish to be herrings, the number consumed 
would be over 20,000,000 : 20,000,000 of herrings as 
the daily allowance for what we know to be only a 
trifling number of the seals that exist in the Northern 
Ocean. 
It is very interesting to observe the amount of intelli- 
gence exhibited by the members of this family, the readi- 
ness with which they become perfectly tame ; but their 
capability of being taught to perform a number of very 
remarkable tricks, considering their form and structure, is 
rendered the more wonderful, and goes far to prove how 
much depends upon the well-developed and large size of 
the brain, for in all the genera of this well-marked group 
or family the brain is remarkable for its bulk, as com- 
163 
