[ Clafs I. 
quadruped s . 
< in their infant ftate, are covered with a 
e whitifh down, or woolly fubftance. 
The natural hiftory of this animal, may be 
farther elucidated, by the following extracts 
from a letter of the reverend Wiv.Borlafe , to a 
member of our fociety, dated OBober the 
24th, 1763. 
c The feals are feen in the greateft plenty 
c on the (hores of Cornwall , in the months of 
4 May, June , and July . 
6 They are of different fizes, fome as large 
c as a moderate cow, and from that down- 
4 wards to a fmall calf. 
4 They feed on mod: forts of fifh which they 
4 can mafter, and are feen fearching for their 
4 prey near fhore; where the whiffling fifh, 
4 wraws, and polacks refort. 
4 They are very fwift in their proper depth 
4 of water, dive like a {hot, and in a trice rife 
4 at fifty yards diftance ; fo that weaker fifh 
4 cannot avoid their tyranny, except in fhallow 
4 water : a perfon of the parifh of Sennan , faw 
4 not long fince a feal in purfuit of a mullet 
4 (that ftrong and fwift fifh:) the feal turned 
4 it too and fro’ in deep water, as a gre hound 
4 does a hare : the mullet at laft found it had 
4 no way to efcape, but by running into fhoal 
4 water : the feal purfued ; and the former to 
4 get more finely out of danger, threw ltfelf 
4 on its fide, by which means it darted into 
4 fhoaler water than it could have fwam in with 
4 the depth of its paunch and fins, and fo ef- 
* caped. 
4 The feal brings her young about the be* 
4 ginning of autumn j our fifhermen have 
4 feen two fucking their dam at the fame time, 
c as fhe flood in the fea in a perpendicular 
4 pofition’. 
4 Their head in fwimming is always above 
4 water, more fo than that of a dog. 
4 They deep on rocks furrounded by the 
4 fea, or on the lefs acceffible parts of our cliffs, 
4 left dry by the ebb of the tide \ and if diff 
4 turbed by any thing, take care to tumble 
4 over the rocks into the fea. They are ex- 
4 tremely watchful, and never fleep long with- 
4 out moving} feldom longer than a minute ^ 
4 then raife their heads, and if they hear or 
4 fee nothing more than ordinary, lie down 
4 again, and fo on, raifing their heads a little, 
4 and reclining them alternately, in about a 
4 minute’s time. Nature feems to have given 
4 them this precaution, as being unprovided 
4 with auricles, or external ears ; and confe- 
4 quently not hearing very quick, nor from 
4 any great diftancev 
In Sir R. SibbahPs hiftory of Scotland , we 
find an account of another fpecies of the feal 
kind, which is copied from Boethius. The 
animal he mentions is the fea-horfe, or Morfe : 
as this vaft creature is found in the Norwegian 
feas, we think it not improbable but that it 
may have appeared on the Scottijh coafts ; 
but having no better authority for it, than 
what is above mentioned, we dare not give it 
a place in a Britijh Zoology. The teeth of 
that animal, are as white and hard as ivory j 
but whether the 4ivory bits, which 
Strabo j* mentions among the articles of the 
Britiflj commerce, were made of them, or the 
tooth of the Narhwal)\s not at this time eafy tq 
be determined. 
f Strabo Lib. 4. . p. 200. (-D.) 
