Seals are remarkable for the size of their bodies, and are very numerous
in the river Plata, especially at the mouth by which it enters the sea.
They have more fat than flesh, so that hunger alone could induce me to
taste them. But their skin, of an elegant yellow colour, marked with a
black line on the back, and covered with very soft hair, is much prized
by Europeans. Our companions, who, at the command of King Philip the
Fifth, sailed to the shores of Magellan, record that seals in that place
often exceed a bullock two years old in size; that they often strive
with one another on the sandy shore, lifting up their bodies as straight
as a pillar, and that many geographers have erred in saying that these
seals have a mane, and in giving them the name of sea-lions. This is no
affair of mine; let others decide the point. I think the dispute is all
about a name.