53° 
rarely feen in the Southern feas, and efpeci- 
ally inthe Mediterranean. The fact we are 
going torelate, muft be, therefore, intereft- 
ing to naturalifts. A wocdcutter,was at 
his labour, in the month of laft Pluviofe, 
in the environs of Baftia, difcovered on 
the fhore an animal which he did not know, 
and the fight of which excited in him a 
{mall degree of trepidation. It was a 
phoca, which lay afleep on the fand. 
The woodcutter called, fome neighbours ; 
the animal was taken, and put in a large 
tub full of water.—The following is a de- 
{cription of it. It was about four feet 
long, had a round head, which was about 
6 inches*in diameter, and pretty much 
like that of a calf; but in licu of ears 
nothing was to be feen but very narrow 
apertures, almoft entirely concealed by 
hairs. Its fkin, very thick and hard, 
was alfo covered with a fmooth, fhort and 
oily hair. It was a female. Its eyes 
were pretty like thofe of an ox; it hada 
confident look, and yet an air of miftruft. 
From its flat noftrils there ran down with- 
out ceafing, efpecially when it -was out of 
the water, a mucus of the molt fetid 
odotr. The neck was big, but much 
lefs than the head. Very near the neck 
iffued out the arms or rather membranous 
hands, very clofe tothe body. Each claw 
had four phalanges, the nails were near 
fix lines in length. t the firft view thefe 
hands appeared without hair; but the hair 
was only fhorter on them than on the other 
parts. The hind legs, which were nearly 
a foot in length, in a manner touched one 
another, and were laid in the direction of 
the tail. This tail terminated in a round 
point, and might be about 23 inches long 
by 12 or 14 lines in width. It proceeded 
from the middle of the two feet or 
hind fins. Such was nearly the figure 
of this animal, which they could only keep 
four and twenty days, although fufficient 
care was taken of it. But it wouid not 
eat. Its appetite failed it as foon as it 
came into the hands of men. It refufed 
fmall fith, frefh meat, frefh grafs, bread, 
wine, &c. The fixth day they gave it 
a preparation of treacle in cow’s milk. 
It fwallowed it very heartily, but refuled 
a fecond dofe. They then thought of 
Jetting it plunge into the fea, after fe- 
curing it by a collar to which a long cord 
was attached. It plunged very deep, and 
remained a long time buried under the wa- 
ter. It was not without fome trouble that 
they forced it to mount again to the 
top. There is reafon to think, that in 
thefe immerfions,. which they repeated 
7 
Literary and Philofopbical Intelligence. 
[July 1, 
pretty often, becaufe it appeared to defire 
them, that it fed on certain fifh. It was 
endowed with a_ tolerable degree of intel- 
ligence. For example, it took a pleafure 
in being carefied near the neck, and tefti- 
fied its gratitude by fmail cries and by 
the winking of its eyes. When the man, 
to the keeping of whom it was intrufted, 
and who had given him the name of 
Moro, faid, ‘* Give me your hand, poor 
Moro,” it raifed the forepart, ftretched 
out its hand, and bending the phalanges, 
really interlocked it with the hand pre- 
fented to it. ‘Although'its conformation 
did not permit it to be very agile, it 
walked or rather crept with fome degree of 
celerity. One day that its keeper, thinking 
it afleep, had left the door of its chamber 
open, the animal got out, and defcended 
feven or eight fteps to find again its keep- 
er who was taking the air on an efplanade. _ 
It was remarked that it had not deviated 
a line, (the 12th part of an inch) from - 
the way by which the perfon it was feek- 
ing had pafled more than an hour before. 
We fhould have fome difficulty to believe 
thefe faéts, fay the authors of the Decade 
Philofophique, if they did not make part 
of a relation fent by the prefeét of Golo, 
who was himlelf occafionally a witnefs of 
it: 1t was in contemplation to fend it to 
Paris, but it. was not long before it was 
found to be wafting away. The diet to 
which it was reftrained, was, perhaps, lefs 
the caufe than.a wound it had received on . 
the right foot, it wasnot known how, and - 
‘which every day grew worfe and worfe. 
New Telegraph. Among the varieties 
of the telesraph in form and conftruétion 
which have been given by ingenious ar- 
tifts, that of Cit. DEPELLON in. the 
French artillery appears to unite great 
fimplicity with ingenuity and effe&. A 
full defcription of this machine would be 
intelligible without reference to the plates, 
but the following is the general plan. 
An upright pele or maft is erected, upon 
the top of which a fingle arm is fixed by 
a pin, and turns round like the hand of a 
dial-plate. Itis moved by a pulley placed 
on the centre pin, round which an endlefs 
cord paftes, which runs ina fimilar pulley 
at the bottom of the maft, which laf is 
turned by fa fmall handle pointing in the. 
fame direftion with the telegraphic arm 
above. ‘This fingle arm is capable of 
eight diftin& pofitions, 2 vertical, two ho- 
rizontal, and 4 at an angle of 45° with 
the. maf. As however the two vertical 
pofitions might be eonfounded, only one is 
to bereckoned, which leayes therefore feven 
ese: diftinet - 
