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from his hand. In his fishing excursions, this gentleman generally took it with him, when it aforded no small entertainment. If thrown into the water, it would follow for miles the track of the boat; and though thrust back by the oars, it never relinquished its purpose. Indeed, it struggled so hard to regain its seat, that one would imagine its fondness for its master had entirely overcome the natural predilection for its native element."

The subgenus Macrorhinus is represented by the gigantic animal usually known under the title of SEA ELEPHANT, from the peculiar appearance of its elongated snout, conjoined with its colossal bulk. This sub-genus is distinguished, not so much by the minor peculiarities of the teeth, as by the presence in the male of a sort of proboscis, a continuation, in fact, of the nostrils, which, when the animal is at rest, is pendent, but which, when the animal is irritated, or takes a violent inspiration, it becomes raised and protruded. The species of this genus best known to naturalists, is that to which we have alluded. It is the Macrorhinus proboscideus of F. Cuvier; Phoca elephantina of Molina; and Phoca leonina of Linneus.

The native regions of this seal, one of the most gigantic and extraordinary of the race, have an extent almost commensurate with the circle of the globe between thirty-five and fifty-five degrees south. It abounds on the shores of Juan Fernandez, and the coast of Patagonia. It frequents the Malouin islands, Tristan D'Acunha, various islands in the eastern ocean, King Island, New Zealand, etc. The Proboscis Seal, or Sea Elephant, say Peron and Leo Sueur, is exclusively a native of the antarctic regions, and delights more especially in such isles as are utterly desolate, to some of which it seems to show an exclusive preference. Thus, among the numerous islands of Bass's Straits, these seals only dwell in great numbers on Hunter's, King's, and New Year's islands; on the isle of the Two Sisters scarcely an individual is to be found, and to the island of Maria they seem to be total strangers. Lastly, this amphibious creature does not exist on the continent of New Holland, nor on the shores of Van Diemen's Land; and the species is only known to the inhabitants of those countries by an individual being occasionally carried | thither by a storm or current.

Numerous herds of these Seals inhabit the land of Kerguelen, the island of Georgia, and the land of the States, where the English habitually maintain their fishery of these animals. They exist in great numbers on the island of Juan Fernandez. It is probable that the small fresh-water lakes, in which these animals delight to bathe, may induce their preference for particular spots. Besides choosing some islands by preference, these Seals also change their residence at particular seasons; they are, in fact, migratory animals. Equally obnoxious to extreme heat and to severe cold, they advance with the winter season from the south to the north, (that is, nearer to the line,) and as the summer comes on, return in the contrary direction. It is in the middle of June that they perform their first migration, overing in countless multitudes the shores of King's Island, which, as the English sailors report, are sometimes blackened by them. In other species, also,

[CARNIVORA

the same migratory movements have been noticed, and this may be more generally the case than has been hitherto suspected, One great object for which the shores are visited at this season is the production of the young; two or three weeks after the arrival of the herd, the females bring forth. The young one, soon after birth, measures about four feet, and it is assiduously nursed by its parent, who remains on shore during the whole of the period until her offspring is fit to be carried out to sea, and commence its predatory career. It is said, and the account is confirmed by many voyagers, that the males form a line between the females and the sea while the latter are nursing their young, in order to prevent the possibility of their deserting, even for a short space of time, their offspring. The period during which the young Proboscis Seal requires the uninterrupted care of the mother, is about seven or eight weeks, and during the whole of this time, she neither eats, nor is permitted to approach the water, but is kept close prisoner to a very circumscribed spot, deprived of the means of procuring nutriment.

"This strange abstinence," says Peron, "did not escape the observation of the unfortunate Alexander Selkirk, who informed Captain Rogers that towards the end of the month of June these animals visited his solitary abode, bringing forth their young about a musket-shot from the sea, and staying to the end of September, without shifting their place or taking any kind of nourishment during all that time. Forster relates the same circumstance; and adds, that towards the latter end of their fast, when they have become extremely emaciated, they swallow a considerable quantity of stones to keep their stomachs distended. The growth of the young is extremely rapid; at the end of eight days it weighs one hundred pounds. So considerable an increase can only take place at the expense of the parent, for she does not repair, by any kind of food, the loss of the nutritious substance which she has supplied. Hence she visibly grows lean; some have even been observed to perish during this painful lactation; but it is, of course, uncertain whether an internal malady might not have been the cause."

At the age of seven or eight weeks, (that is, when the mother is almost exhausted, and the young are of considerable size,) the young are conducted to the sea, to which, indeed, the whole herd, both males and females, now retire, and in which, as in a magazine of food, the females soon recover their strength and fatness; here the young are familiarized with the water, but still remain under a sort of guardianship; for they are not permitted to separate from the main body; and such as straggle to an undue distance, are pursued and driven back by one of the old ones.

After sojourning out at sea for about a month, during which time the energies of the system have been recruited, the adult males and females repair a second time to the shore, which now becomes a scene of the most furious conflicts; the females remaining passive spectators of the contest. Though numbers are engaged at the same time in strife, the combat is always individual against individual :-"Two colossal rivals drag themselves heavily along; they meet muzzle to muzzle; they raise the whole of the fore-part of

their body on their flippers; they open wide their enormous mouth; their eyes are inflamed with fury; thus prepared, they drive themselves furiously against each other, and falling together with the shock, teeth to teeth, and jaw to jaw, they reciprocally inflict severe lacerations; sometimes the eyes are torn out of the sockets in this conflict; still more frequently they lose their tusks; blood flows abundantly; but the obstinate combatants, without appearing to feel their wounds, continue to fight until their powers are completely exhausted. It is rare to see one left dead on the field of battle, for their wounds are observed to heal with inconceivable promptitude."

When these scenes of bloodshed and rage have ended, and tranquillity is restored, the troop, headed by a leader, leave the islands hitherto occupied, (in latitude thirty-three degrees,) and migrate southwards, towards the antarctic circle, where they spend (in latitude fifty-five degrees) the summer months, remaining, till the setting in of the frost compels them to return to warmer latitudes. It is observed that a few individuals remain in these latitudes even during the summers, probably in consequence of being disabled by wounds or debility, from undertaking the ordinary journey. In the month of June, the herds have arrived at their accustomed breeding places. The young grow very rapidly, and in three years attain to the length, but not the bulk of their parents, and at this period the males have the proboscis developed. The ordinary length of the full grown Proboscis Seal varies from eighteen to twenty-five feet; the males exceed the females. The young having attained to their full length, increase in bulk, and assume entire independence. Few, even of the Seal tribe, are more slow and awkward on the shore than the present species. Of stupendous size, and loaded with blubber, they drag themselves along with difficulty, as if oppressed by their own weight, but in the water they float with great buoyancy. Their food consists of fishes, cuttle-fish, and other molluscous animals, together with some kinds of sea-weed; on opening the stomach, the fishermen affirm that they find them containing vast numbers of the hard parrot-like beaks of the cuttle fish, mixed with marine plants, and often also with stones or gravel.

The females are destitute of a proboscis, and have the upper lip slightly fissured at the margin. The hair is very short, and close set, and of a grey or bluish grey colour, and sometimes brown. The lips are furnished with long stiff whiskers, twisted like a screw, and a tuft of similar bristles rises above the eyes, which are large and prominent. The anterior flippers are remarkable for their size and vigour; the tail is very short, flattened horizontally, and dilated at the extremity. The voice of the female is said to resemble the lowing of an ox, but the males utter a deep, hoarse, gurgling sound.

Captain Carmichael, in his description of the island of Tristan d'Acunha, 1817, observes that the full-grown male of twenty to twenty-five feet in length, yields seventy gallons of oil. See Linn. Trans. vol. xii. "These Seals," he adds, "pass the greater part of their time on shore; they may be seen in hundreds, lying asleep along

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the sandy beach, or concealed among the long spartina grass which borders the sea-shore. These huge animals are so little apprehensive of danger, that they must be kicked or pelted with stones before they make any effort to move out of one's way. When roused from their slumber, they raise the fore part of their body, open wide their mouth, and display a formidable set of tusks, but never attempt to bite. Should this, however, fail to intimidate their disturbers, they set themselves at length in motion, and make for the water; but still with such deliberation, that on an expedition we once made to the opposite side of the island, two of our party were tempted to get astride on the back of one of them, and rode him fairly into the water."

In conclusion it may be observed, that a good history of the Seal tribe is yet a desideratum; much specific confusion prevails about them; and of the details of their habits and manners in a state of nature we have yet much to learn. Tenants, for the most part, of lonely islands and desolate shores; some confined to the northern, some to the southern ocean, they seldom come within the range of the personal researches of the naturalist, who has to depend upon the accounts of voyagers or fishermen for his information; and this is gleaned, as it were, piecemeal, and often mixed with error. Among the rarer animals of this tribe, the Proboscis Seal, owing to the circumstance of its being sought for in order to obtain the oil with which its body is loaded, is perhaps the best known, as regards its habits, of all the South Sea species.

The next distinct genus is that of Trichechus, which contains but one species, as far as is hitherto known, namely, the MORSE, or WALRUS, (Trichechus rosmarus.) The Morse resembles the Seal in the general conformation of its limbs and body, but is much larger, and more thick and clumsy in its proportions. Its great singularity consists in the construction of the skull. The lower jaw wants both incisor and canine teeth, and is compressed laterally to fit in between two enormous canine teeth or tusks, which arise out of the upper jaw, and are inclined downwards with a gentle curve; the length of these tusks is sometimes two feet, and of a proportionate thickness. The alveoli, or sockets, necessary for the reception of their roots, are consequently so large and protuberant, as to occupy the whole of the anterior portion of the upper jaw, and give a roundness to the form of the muzzle; while the nostrils, instead of terminating in a snout, are situated far above the mouth, on what appears the middle of the face. The molar teeth are four on each side above and below; the ears are merely two small orifices ; the head is small in proportion to the bulk of the body; the neck is short; the lips thick, the upper being divided by a longitudinal furrow, and studded with strong bristles; its skin is very thick and impenetrable, and covered with smooth yellowish hair. This huge animal often measures eighteen or twenty feet in length, and ten or twelve in circumference round the chest.

The Walrus inhabits the icy seas of the north, and, like the Seal, is gregarious in its habits, assembling in vast herds; and, though far from