In a group so extensive as these Amphibia, the only correct method of coming to a knowledge of their habits and mental powers and dispositions, is by minutely considering the propensities of each distinct species; and for details we must therefore refer to the subsequent part of the volume. In the few remarks which follow, all that we can attempt is a very short and hasty sketch.

It is frequently stated in modern works, that it is not established whether Seals frequent inland seas, such as the Caspian, or fresh water lakes, such as Lake Baikal; which doubts are grounded chiefly upon supposititious difficulties as to the mode of their introduction into these detached and dreary waters Peron especially, although we believe we must also add Lesson, and after them Dr Prichard,* treat the opinion as altogether apocryphal and absurd. We cannot, however, but regard this as an error, the result of false reasoning, and insufficient care. Nothing can be more specific than Steller's statement that they frequent the Caspian, and the fresh water lakes, Baikal and Oron, which have no direct communication with the sea ;† and nothing more circumstantial, and apparently correct, than Pallas' account, from personal observation, of these animals, in both these seas. The insinuation, that the creatures seen might be otters, is quite gratuitous, and cannot stand against the express testimony

* Prichard's Researches into the Phys. Hist. of Man, 3d Ed. i. 63, 65.

De Bestiis Marinis, Nov. Com. Petro, t. ii. p. 290.

of the most eminent Naturalist of his day. When discoursing about the Caspian, Pallas states the particular situations in which he had seen them, and the spots which were famous for the numbers which they harboured. We shall quote a few words. "Seals sometimes ascend the Jaik or Aural in winter. Many have been killed both on the banks and inlets. The Seal of the Caspian is much fatter in autumn than those of the Baltic which I have seen. They appear more like a skin filled with oil than an animal, as you can scarcely recognise their head and fore paws for the fat. Their skin and blubber are taken to Astrakan, which supplies the oil throughout the Empire."* He is equally specific respecting the Seals of Lake Baikal, as will appear in the sequel. These statements leave, we think, no room for scepticism; and they might be multiplied by additional quotations from Anderson and others.† Bearing upon a somewhat similar point, we add the following fact:-"Lochaw, in the parish of North Knapdale, abounds with plenty of salmon, and the Seals come up from the ocean through a very rapid river, in quest of this fish, and retire to the sea at the approach of winter."‡

Most of the Seals are pre-eminently gregarious. Seldom are they seen except in flocks, amounting sometimes to hundreds, and in some instances even to many thousands.

Voy. de Pal. t. i. pp. 674, 680-2.

† See Anderson's Iceland, t. ii. p. 169. Statist. Acc. vi. 260.

It is also deserving of remark, that they are decidedly migratory in their habits, the great stimulus to which appears to be the change of temperature. Very many are, from choice, inhabitants of the margins of the frozen seas towards both poles. But the line of the margin varies much with the season of the year. On the approach of the Polar winter they emerge from its dark and dreary solitude towards milder regions, and during the winter months select a more moderate temperature, where they are occupied with the all-important work of parturition. Theis period of gestation is considered to be nine or ten months, and their progeny never exceeds one, or at most two, at a time. In the herbivorous Cete the mammæ are pectoral, whilst in the amphibia they are ventral. Their number, in some species of Seals, is said to be two, and in others four; the teats lie concealed in the skin, so defending them from the exposure arising from their crawling when on land. Thus placed, the nipples are seized by the young with more difficulty than is usual; and to assist them, it has been alleged that the tongue has received that bifurcated termination, which is seen in the margin, which is a curious feature in many, if not all Seals, and is, we believe, more conspicuous in them than in any other of the Mammalia.

The important work of lactation and procreation accomplished, with the returning spring the Seals again resort to their more distant and almost impenetrable icy haunts, where, in that deep solitude which they love, and almost removed from human ken, they spend their time in a way with which it is not easy for us to become familiar. The regularity with which these migrations are accomplished is often remarkable; and is thus alluded to by an ancient Poet :

When they the approaching time perceive,
They flee the deep, and watery pastures leave:
On the dry ground, far from the swelling tide
Bring forth their young, and on the shores abide,
Till twice six times they see the Eastern gleams
Brighten the hills, and tremble on the streams.
The thirteenth morn, soon as the early dawn
Hangs out its crimson folds or spreads its lawn,
No more the fields and lofty coverts please,

Each hugs her own, and hastes to rolling seas.

The uniformity and power of this instinct are strongly set forth in the following extract:" In the

beginning of June," says Crantz, " they come back, young and all, like a flock of sheep. They seem to observe a certain fixed time, and track, like the birds of passage, and take a route that is free from ice; therefore the ships from Spitzbergen can freely follow them. We can pretty well ascertain the day at the end of May when they will be again at Frederick Hope; and in the beginning of June at Good Hope, and so further north.*

Another interesting particular in regard to their migrations is, that, like some other migratory creatures, and more especially birds, they usually affect particular spots, where, having once been located, they will always in preference return, and will scarcely leave, though beset with many and great dangers. Thus in some desolate recess of the ocean, if fifty islets be grouped together in nearly apparent uniformity and sterility, it will often be found that the Seals habitually resort and crowd upon some two or three favoured ones, to the complete neglect of all the others. We do not venture to say that they, in their wisdom, have not some good reason for this, though hitherto it is unascertained. Occasionally it has been observed that in some of these resorts there is a stream of salubrious water, which, if not quite essential, is yet an object of first-rate importance to them, and possibly in every instance there is some equally satisfactory reason for their choice.

• Greenland, p. 129.