54 
ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
of extreme shortness, and occasions the animal to crawl on 
land with great awkwardness and seeming difficulty, to which 
motion the expressive term “ walloping ” is applied. In the 
water they move gracefully and easily. By means of their 
fore feet they can lay hold of objects with sufficient firmness 
to drag themselves up shores, and on shoals of ice, however 
slippery they may be. Even on land their motions are quicker 
than their appearance would lead one to expect ; so that it 
frequently happens that when they have been dangerously 
wounded, hunters are unable to overtake them before they 
get to the water’s edge and so escape. 
The nostrils of the seal are provided with a peculiar mus- 
cular apparatus, by which their orifices are perfectly closed 
at will, effectually excluding water during submersion. Cuvier 
states that they are seldom opened, except when desirous of 
expelling or introducing air into its lungs : and that they then 
assume a circular form; their respiration is extremely unequal, 
and performed after long intervals. The quantity of air 
inhaled seems, however, to compensate for the paucity of the 
inspirations, for few animals have more natural heat or a 
greater quantity of blood than the seal. The form of the 
teeth and the jaws shows them to be carnivorous, their food 
consisting principally of fish, crabs, and sea birds, which they 
are able to surprise while swimming. 
The females produce two or three young at a time, gener- 
ally in the winter. When the cubs have acquired strength 
enough to contend with the waves, the mother conducts them 
to the water and teaches them to swim aboutin search of food. 
When in danger, the safety of her cubs is the chief object of 
attention with the mother. The male parent, particularly of 
the ursine seal, seems to take scarcely less delight in the young 
than the mother. While basking in the sun upon the shore, 
he eyes them with the greatest complacency, and expresses 
his satisfaction by licking and kissing them as they sport and 
tumble about. 
