THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM JOURNAL. 
61 
FACTS AND FANCIES ABOUT FISH, 
FOR OUR YOUNG FOLKS. 
TOLD BY UNCLE OCTOPUS. 
PRIZE COMPOSITIONS. 
You will first notice, my young friends—that 
is, those of you who read this Journal every 
month—that your Uncle Octopus has been pro¬ 
moted, and this is how you may know it. When 
anybody who has anything to do for a paper in 
the way of writing, succeeds so well that he 
pleases those for whom he writes, the manager 
ofieri vHs him that his writings <\v' be printed 
on the Editorial pages. ( Now the two Editorial 
pages of the Aquarium Journal are the fourth 
and fifth, and you see we are to have one of 
these all to ourselves. The time has come for 
telling who received the two prizes for the com¬ 
positions about seals, and as in the case of the 
whale composition we print the best two, and I 
am certain that you will say that they are both 
good ones. But boys and girls of New York 
what are you about ? Why, if you will read these 
letters, you will see that they were both written by 
boys who have never been to our Aquarium, and 
so have never seen the queer trained seals which 
bow and ring bells and climb stairs and all that. 
After you have read about the seals, you will 
come to another letter written by a New York 
girl, who went to the Aquarium and has taken 
the trouble to tell us about it. Now Miss Ella 
Fletcher shall also have a prize for her nice letter. 
The first prize for the seal composition goes to 
. Master Cozzens, and we wish you could see the 
beautiful writing of this letter ; why your Uncle 
did not have to put on his spectacles to read it, 
so plain was every word. Master Brinton, who 
wrote so well about the whale, is to have a boy’s 
book on Natural History, also, as his composi¬ 
tion is as good as the other, all except the writ¬ 
ing, which is not quite so plain, and editors like 
plain writing you know. We cannot end this 
letter without telling you all, that if you go to 
the Aquarium at once you will see the funniest 
magic lantern show that was ever seen and who 
knows but that you may see pictures of living 
fish that will be twice as ugly as your 
Uncle Octopus. 
Dear Uncle Octopus : 
I saw in the January number <jf your Aqua¬ 
rium Journal, that the child who wrote the best 
composition about Seals would receive a prize, 
so I will try : 
The Seal is an animal which lives principally 
in the sea, but often comes on the shore or ice- 
banks to lie in the sun. Its head is shaped 
somewhat like that of a dog, and it has bright, 
intelligent eyes. Its nostrils are formed in such 
a manner that they can be completely closed 
when the animal stays under water, and opened 
as soon as it comes to the surface to breathe, and 
its ears are so formed as to prevent the entrance 
of water. Some of its teeth are covered with 
sharp points of different sizes, while the others 
are long and sharp like those of a dog. The 
Seal is of great commercial value, yielding val¬ 
uable fur which is made into cloaks, hats, gloves, 
&c., and also yielding oil. The Esquimaux 
hunt it with spears, and bows and arrows. I 
have heard the story of a man who had the pres¬ 
ent of a Seal; it soon became very tame, and 
would eat from his hand. It was very fond of 
heat, and would lie for hours by the stove; it 
soon became very friendly with the dogs. It 
happened that winter was very stormy and cold, 
and fishing boats seldom put to sea, so fish be¬ 
came scarce, and they were obliged to feed it on 
milk which it ate in large quantities, but milk 
was too expensive, so one morning they took it 
in a boat and went about two miles from shore, 
v here th q dh iped u i > r r 1 ai 1 r<n ;dq tick 
v . .OJW' I'At'.-, • v s • -.nvr . - • -y .. i _ 
ly back, but the Seal was determined not to go, 
but followed them and cried so loud that they 
took it home again. There are four species of 
the Seal—the Common Seal, the Crested, the 
Hispid, and the Bearded Seal. The common 
Seal is found in nearly all parts of the globe, 
and is gentler and more easily tamed than the 
rest of the Seal family, and is quite active on 
land and very active in the sea. The Crested 
Seal is found in Arcdc America and Southern 
Greenland, and is the most valuable of the Seal 
family. It is the most courageous of the Seal 
tribe, its crest serving as a shield for its head. 
The Hispid Seal is found in the Polar seas, and 
forms the principal part of the Esquimaux food. 
The Bearded Seal is a very bulky, shapeless ani¬ 
mal, living in the Polar seas. It measures about 
ten feet in length, and eighth feet in girth. It 
is very useful to the Esquimaux, who make a 
sort of rope from its hide, which is used as a 
harpoon or spear line in spearing Walrus. 
Yours, Respectfully, 
Fred. Cozzens, 
Cleveland, Ohio. 
The Seal is an amphibious animal, that means 
it can live both in water and on land. There 
are several varieties ; the common Seal is from 
four to nine feet in length, and weighs from one 
to two hundred pounds and is found along the 
coasts of North America and Greenland. The 
great Seal measures from ten to thirteen feet, and 
is found on the islands in the Arctic Ocean and 
on the Newfoundland Coast The Harp Seal is 
distinguished by having two marks like two half 
moons on its back. It varies more in its color 
than any other seal, so much in fact, that the 
Esquimaux change its name with its color. It 
is playful like the common Seal- The Feited 
Seal is of a grayish-white color and lives in 
caves. The men that catch them go in the 
caves and arrange themselves at the mouth and 
make a noise to arouse them and then they 
knock them on the head with a club and stun, 
them. These Seals when old never leave a cer¬ 
tain place till they die. They have holes in the 
ice for fishing, but never hurt the sea-fowl which 
swim on the water in great numbers. The Bot¬ 
tle-nosed Seal is very lazy, the largest having a 
foot of fat around its body. They are generally 
found in the seas around the Falkland Islands 
and the Island of Juan Fernandez. The Seal 
in general is a timid animal, but if pursued and 
finding no way of escape it will turn and rush at 
its energy and try to knock him down. They 
used to kill Seals by harpooning them, but now 
they kill them by hitting them on the head with 
a club. To the Greenlander there is scarcely 
any part of the Seal that is not useful. The skin 
makes his clothing ; the faffmakes his oil; the 
meat makes his dinner. Since we bought 
Alaska from Russia Seals are very 'plentiful, but 
we are destroying them so fast that they will soon 
become scarce again, The fur is very fine and 
warm and is used for ladies coats and muffs ; 
the hair on the outside is rough and bristly, but 
this is taken off and underneath is the fine skin, 
which is dyed usually a very dark brown; the 
fur of course is very warm because the Seal lives 
in very cold climates and needs a warm coat as 
welTksJ "i '““H 
Philadelphia. 
New York, Feb. ioth, 1877. 
Uncle Octopus—Dear Sir : 
While reading your Journal, I observed your 
wish of receiving compositions from children, 
and thought I- would like to write a short one. 
Being one of the many school children who 
visited the Aquarium on Friday, February 9th, 
was much pleased to find so much that interested 
me. On entering the building the first thing 
that attracted my attention was a crowd gathered 
around a tank, and making further inquiries 
found it to be Seals. Oh, what knowing crea¬ 
tures they appear to be. I stood watching them 
for some time, particularly when the gentleman 
bowed the Seal returned it, and after each act he 
had a dinner of small fish. Then again it tapped 
a bell and looked around so cunning as if wait¬ 
ing a reply. I went to the Centennial Exhibi¬ 
tion and there noticed the curious dress of the 
diver, and did not think it made such an ap¬ 
pearance in the water, until having the pleasure 
of seeing it illustrated at the New York Aqua¬ 
rium. I also feel, sure that a person could go 
there every day, and see something new and 
interesting. And I wish all children could have 
the opportunity ol doing so. I left the Aqua¬ 
rium very much satisfied with my visit, and hop¬ 
ing to be able to go again soon. 
I remain, very truly yours, 
Ella IT, Fletcher. 
