WRITERS on Natural History have remarked that the form of this animal's head indicates much intelligence; and facts which have been recorded confirm the remark. M. Frederic Cuvier mentions a seal which readily obeyed a number of orders given to it by its master, to whom it appeared to be exceedingly attached. It would rise on its hinder feet, shoulder a stick as a musket, lie down on the right or left side, and perform several other feats. The docility of seals is no new discovery. Pliny,*

This writer, who, besides other works, composed a Natural History in thirty-seven books, perished from the effects of an eruption of Vesuvius, which curiosity had led him to witness too near to the scene.

a Roman naturalist, who flourished A. D. 66, and wrote in Latin, says of them, " They receive discipline; they know people by their look and voice; they answer to their names." They are stated by Low, in his Fauna Orcadensis, to have a large share of curiosity : for if people are passing near them in boats, they often come close to a boat and follow it; and when they hear loud talking, they put on looks of wonder and inquiry. They are exceedingly valuable to the Greenlanders, who use their flesh for food, and their fat for oil. The skin not only serves for clothing, but as a covering for boats. In this country the skin is tanned for various purposes. It is sometimes dressed with

the fur on, and made into caps.

They are classed among British quadrupeds, being found in the Orkney and Zetland isles. They also occasionally frequent the Tees, and commit havoc among the salmon.

Lord Teignmouth, in his Sketches of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, says that these animals breed in immense quantities on a small rocky island called the Stacks of Skerries. In the centre of the island is a lake, on the banks of which the Seals are found basking in multitudes with their young. As soon as they are alarmed by the prospect of their enemies, they congregate, form a body, and scuttle away across the land to the sea. The men divide and charge the retreating column on both flanks with large sticks. A blow on the nose of the Seal instantly destroys the animal. Many of them are taken in nets.

THIS extraordinary animal, which is sometimes called the Morse, the Sea-cow, or the Sea-horse, is found, like the seal, only in the colder regions. It frequently visits the shore, or the ice, and remains there for days together, until driven back to the sea, either by fear or hunger. At the first approach of danger, it makes for the element in which it lives, and where it moves with greater comfort and freedom than on dry land. Its timid disposition, or perhaps its love of society, induces it to associate in herds. These are found by the hunters to the number of forty, eighty, or one hundred together. They are often killed on land at Spitzbergen, and other northern coasts, with spears, for the sake of their oil, and the ivory of their tusks.

The capture of the Walrus on land is less frequent than formerly, partly, perhaps, from the reduction in

its numbers, and partly from its having been taught greater caution by its ingenious pursuer, man.

It is ranked with the seals among carnivorous, or flesheating animals; and fish, probably, forms a portion of its food; but Professor Bell notices the form and structure of its jaw-teeth, which "are calculated rather to bruise the half-pulpy mass of marine vegetables, than to hold and pierce the slippery hardness of the fish's scaly cuirass." The canine teeth, directed downwards, are extremely long and powerful, and are valuable for the creature's defence. When attacked, it is fierce and violent, especially if its young ones are with it. It will then rise and endeavour to sink or overset the boat by means of its tusks.

The Walrus is, at its birth, about the size of a pig of a year old; when full grown, it is as large as an ox. Two or three instances are on record of the Walrus having been found on the coasts of Britain.

THIS interesting and good-tempered animal inhabits New South Wales, and some of the islands between that continent and South-eastern Asia, and has as yet been discovered in no other part of the globe. It is fond of wandering about among the grass, and feeds on green herbage, roots, and hay. The greatest peculiarity in the form of the Kangaroo, consists in the extreme disproportion of its limbs; the front legs being short, and