Volume 1

Cassell's popular natural history.

Date:
[1865-1866]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cassell's popular natural history. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    802/824 (page 360)
    300 wlieu used, they spread and present a broad surface. The tail is short, and placed between the hind paws, or flippers, which are directed backwards. Thus, while other animals are confined to the land on which they find their prey, the species of which this division is composed are natives of the water, where they pursue fishes a^d other marine creatures as their food. As, in fact, the seals pass a great portion of their life in the ocean, only coming occasionally on shore to bask in the sun, or suckle their young, their adaptation to their circumstances is absolutely perfect. Of this there is one remarkable proot which ought not to pass unnoticed. The head resembles that of a short-muzzled dog, but the nostrils are provided with a kind of valve, which is closed when the animal dives; while the cellular tissue which intervenes between the skin and muscles is very loose and fibrous, and appears to be a receptacle for the blood during the suspension of breathing under water, where it can remain a long time without injury. During this period of submersion the blood cannot pass through the heart, and so accumulates in the larger veins; to relieve these, therefore, of an undue pressure, this loose tissue appears to be designed. It is found in all animals whose habits are similar to, or approach those of, the seal. The blood is abundant : its dark colour shows that it contains less oxygen than is necessary for animals who live entirely on land. THE COMMON SEAL.* This animal, often seen on the rocky coasts of Scotland and Ireland, is abundant along the northern shores of Europe and America, and is found in the Caspian Sea, and the fresh-water lakes of Russia and Siberia. Its average length is about five feet; its colour is jmllowish-gray, clouded or dappled with bi-own or yellow; the lips are furnished with long, stiff whiskers ; there are no external ears. And yet, so fine is the sense of hearing, that the seal is attracted by musical sounds. Sir Walter Scott says :— ,K Rude Heiskar's seals, through surges dark, Will long pursue the minstrel’s bark.” Nor is tliis assertion merely poetic. Laing, in his “Voyage to Spitzbergen,” states that, when a violin was played on board thri vessel, it would generally draw around it a numerous audience of seals, which would even follow it for miles. Gregarious in its habits, the seal frequents the deep recesses and caverns of our northern shores, to which it resorts for a breeding-place. Here, during winter, the female produces her young, generally two at a birth, suckling them for a few weeks on the spot, till they are strong enough to be conveyed by their parent to the water. She displays great solicitude for their safety, teaches them to swim and pursue their finny prey, and carries them, when fatigued, on her back. This seal, in common with others, is hunted for the sake of its skin and blubber. The fishing, which commences in autumn, is practised by means of nets stretched across narrow sounds, where the seals are accustomed to swim. It is, however, only the young that can be thus entangled—the old ones are shot. Boatmen with torches, and bludgeons, too, enter at night their recesses and caves, when the seals, alarmed by the glare and the shouts of the men, rush tumultuously forward to sea, and are knocked on the head with clubs—men being duly stationed for that purpose. In Finland, seal-hunting is a favourite arid profitable pursuit. When the ice begins to break up, a few men go to sea in a boat, notwithstanding all the horrors of floating amidst broken fields of ice, which every instant threaten the annihilation of their slender bark. In such situations seals frequently repose on the shoals ; here, therefore, some of the party land, and, creeping on their hands and feet, cautiously steal on the animals and kill them during their.sleep. lo the Esquimaux and Greenlanders the seal is of the utmost importance, their main subsistence depending on their success in capturing the animal in the northern ocean. There, “ tumbling in their seal-skin boat, fearless the hungry fishers float. And from teeming seas supply The food their niggard plains deny.” * Phocn vi,ullna- pyocephalus vitulinus: F. Cuvier.—Moelrohn, of the Ancient British; Le Venn nurin and Fhoqua commun.of the French ; Meerlvolf and Meerhund of the Germans; and Lobo marino, of the Spanish.