SEA L. 
fpot, deep a great part of the time, eat nothing, 
and, except the employment the females have in 
fuckling their young, are totally ina&ive: they 
live in families; each male has from eight to fifty 
females, whom he guards with the jealoufy of an 
eaftern monarch; and though they lie by thoufands 
on the fhores, each family keeps itfelf feparate from 
the refr, and fometimes, with the young and un¬ 
married ones, amount to a hundred and twenty. 
The old animals, which are deflitute of females, or 
deferted by them, live apart, and are exceffively 
fplenetic, peevifh and quarrelfome: are exceffively 
fierce, and fo attached to their old haunts, that they 
would die fooner than quit them. They are mon- 
ftroufly fat, and have a moil hircine fmell. If ano¬ 
ther approaches their ftation, they are rouzed from 
their indolence and inflantly fnap at it, and a battle 
enfues; in the conrlift, they perhaps intrude on the 
feat of another : this gives new caufe of offence, fo 
in the end the difcord becomes univerfal, and is 
fpread thro 9 the whole fhore. 
The other males are alfo very irafcible : the caufes 
of their difputes are generally thefe. The firft and 
the moft terrible is, when an attempt is made by 
another to feduce one of their miftreffes, or a young 
female of the family. This infult produces a com¬ 
bat, and the conqueror is immediately followed by 
the whole feraglio, who are fure of deferring the 
unhappy vanquifhed. The fecond reafon of a quar¬ 
rel is, when one invades the feat of another: the 
third arifes from their interfering in the difputes of 
others. Thefe battles are very violent; the wounds 
