MOTION OF SEALS. 
313 
to be tbe dam of the slaughtered young one. The ma- 
ternal instinct did not exhibit any stronger emotion 
than this anxious vigilance. The young one ^vas 
sufficiently grown to be no longer dependent on the 
mother. Had it been still sucking, there was enough 
to show that the parental passion would have merged 
fearlessness into fury, and inquietude for the safety 
of its young, into unsparing vengeance for its fate. 
‘^Without doing more than referring to Weddell’s 
observation, that the jaw of the Seals he describes 
was so powerful in the agonies of death as to grind 
stones into powder, it seemed, from the condition of 
the teeth of some eight that were taken during the 
time Mr. Wilkie’s party were on the Pedros, that 
their strength is exercised in more laborious work 
than crushing the bones of fishes. The opinion that 
the more experienced fishermen expressed was, that 
they fed as generally on molluscous animals as on fish, 
and that their teeth suffered much wear and tear in 
the work of breaking shells. Yet it is remarkable 
that the contents of the stomachs of those killed 
gave them no insight into the nature of their food : — 
they were invariably empty. 
I must not omit to mention that our friends had 
one opportunity of closely observing the progression 
of the Seal when ascending the beach. The advance 
was by a succession of zigzag movements. It was 
evident that the ground was first gripped by one 
fore flipper, then by the other, that the body ad- 
vanced first to the right, then to the left, as one 
or the other flipper took its hold of the earth, and 
helped they body onward. The seemed to delight 
P 
