History of British animals - University of Guam Marine Laboratory

Phoca. MAMMALIA. FERA. 17winter, its footsteps are traced in the snow to the springs of fresh-water whichit visits The fur of the otter is valuable, and forms an article of export inthe northern isles. The animal, when taken young, is easily tamed, is docile,and will catch fish for its master.grateful,Gen. XV. PHOCA.Seal.—All the grinders nearlyuniformin their appearance ; six incisors above, and four below.Fur short. Fore-legs short, and inclosed in the skin ;hindlegsnearly coalesce with the body ; pelvis narrow. Sleepson stones ;breeds in caves ;is killed easily by a blow onthe nose.Might be domesticated with advantage. Yieldsoil.— The skin is made into leather.21. P. vUulina. Common seal.— Body about six feet inlength ;colour various.Vitulus mar. Merr. Pin. 167—Sib. Scot. p. 10— Phoca, Rat/, Quad. 189.Lin. Svst. 1. p.56. 1 Pen. Brit. Zool. 1. 137—Flem. Phil. Zool. tab. 1.f. 3. X Sea-calf, Soil; S, Selch, Pouart, Cowie, Tangfish; W, Moelrhon; G, Ron On all our shores and large estuaries.Seals are extremely watchful, and seldom remain long without raising theirheads and looking around. They are expert divers, and can seldom be shotin the water. They prey on fish of all kinds, and in the estuaries are mostdestructive to salmon. They display considerable ingenuity in evading beingcaptured by the net, into -which they occasionally enter in search of theirprey, creepiDg out at the bottom, or leaping over it at the surface. Theysometimes enter fresh-water lakes in pursuit of their prey. In the StatisticalAccount (vol.vi. p. 260.) of the parish of North Knapdale, by the Rev.Archibald Campbell,it is said, that Lochow, which is about twenty miles inlength, and three in breadth, " abounds with plenty of the finest salmon ;and, what is uncommon, the seal comes up from the ocean, through a very rapidriver, in quest of this fish, and retires to the sea at the approach of winter."They breed about midsummer, bringing forth their young, which aretwo in number, in caves on the coast. Seals were formerly used as food,though their flesh is dark coloured. At present they are sought after on accountof their skin, and the oil which they yield. A few of the young onesare slain in the caves in which they were brought forth. The old ones areshot when at rest on sand-banks, or rocks, or taken in nets. Sometimes theyare destroyed by recurved iron pikes, secured in beams of wood fixed on thebanks, which they frequent, near low water-mark ; the seals, at a proper timeof tide, are surprised, and driven rapidly into the water, when they areinterrupted and wounded by the pikes, and felled with clubs. According toDean Monroe, seals, when on the ban':s at Lochegrenord, in Islay, were slainwith trained dogs. They are ea.-ily tamed. They are occasionally subject toepizooty. About fifty years ago, mid.itudes of carcases were cast ashorein every bay in the north of Scotland, Orkney and Zetland, and numbers werefound at sea in a sickly state.Mr Pennant mentions one taken near Chester in May 1766, which, at thetime, was nearly naked ; only the head and a small spot beneath each fore-legbeing hairy, Brit. Zool. i. p. 139. In the last edition of the same work (1812),this var. is described as a distinct species, Pied Seal, with the nose tapered andelongated ; the fore-head black ; the hind-head and throat white, with a spotbeneath each fore-leg of the same colour ; hind-feet dirty Avliite ; remainderan intense black ; i. p. 177-The relics of the seal have been found in the marine diluvium which occurson the banks of the Forth towards the head of the estuary.VOL. I.B