Ill 
of Edinburgh, Session 1869-70. 
Dr Page expresses himself with more reserve regarding the Stratli- 
eden seal. He looks upon it u as a pretty widely divergent variety 
of the common seal, if not a distinct species—a point, however, which 
yet awaits the precise determination of the comparative anatomist.” 
I have now carefully compared the jaws (more especially the 
lower, which are best preserved), and the teeth of the Grangemouth, 
Stratheden, and Portobello seals, not only with the adult skulls 
and teeth of the common seal, but with a young skull of that species, 
apparently about the same age as the fossil specimens, and I have 
no hesitation in saying that they are not of the same species. The 
number of teeth is indeed the same, but the character and mode of 
implantation of the molars exhibit important differences. In the 
clay seals, the number of cusps in the premolar and molar series 
does not exceed four, and this number is distinctly marked in all but 
the first and last. The second cusp in each tooth is the largest, but 
it does not preponderate very greatly over the first and third cusps, 
and the bases of the crowns are not much swollen. The teeth are 
set in the jaw in longitudinal series, one directly behind the 
other. 
In the young of the common seal the cuspidation of the lower 
molars is not so uniform as in the clay seals; the last molar has 
four cusps, the penultimate has five, and the third and second only 
three. One cusp preponderates largely over the others, and the 
base of the crown is swollen. The molar teeth, also, are set obliquely 
in the jaw, so that one tooth not only lies in front, but somewhat 
to the outer side of the one behind it. This oblique setting of the 
grinders is also seen in well grown specimens. 
The upper molars in the clay seals are smaller and more delicately 
formed than in the common seal. They are, as a rule, tricus- 
pidate, and with, as a rule, the central cusp the largest. They are 
not set obliquely, and the more anterior do not overlap those 
which lie behind. In the common seal, again, the anterior cusp 
is usually the biggest, and the upper, like the lower molars, are set 
obliquely. 
I have also compared the jaws and teeth of these clay seals with 
the skulls of Phocci barbata, Halichoerus gryphus, and Pagophilus 
groenlandicus, northern seals, which possess the same general dental 
formula. With barbata and gryplius there are so many points of 
