habits of the Sea Lions on the Seal Rocks of San Francisco, furnished
Mr. Allen with a graphic account of their movements, from which we quote
the following: "As they approach to effect a landing, the head only
appears decidedly above water. This is their familiar element and they
swim with great speed and ease, quite unmindful of the heavy surf, and
of the breakers on the ledges. In landing they are apt to take advantage
of a heavy wave which helps them to get the forward flippers on _terra
firma_. As the wave retreats they begin to struggle up the steep rocks,
twisting the body from side to side, with a clumsy worm-like motion, and
thus alternately work their flippers into positions, where they may
force the body a little onward. At such times they have a general
appearance of sprawling over the ground. It is quite astonishing to see
how they will go up surfaces having even a greater inclination than 45°
and where a man would have to creep with much exertion. In their onward
path they are accompanied by the loud barking of all the seals they
pass; and these cries may be heard a great distance. They play among
themselves continually by rolling on each other and feigning to bite;
often too, they will amuse themselves by pushing off those that are
trying to land. All this is done in a very cumbrous manner, and is
accompanied by incessant barking. As they issue from the water their fur
is dark and shining; but as it dries, it becomes of a yellowish brown.
Then they appear to feel either too dry or too hot, for they move to the
nearest point from which they may tumble into the sea. I saw many roll
off a ledge at least twenty feet high, and fall like so many huge brown
sacks into the water, dashing up showers of spray."
Sea Bears.
The Northern Sea Bear is otherwise known as the Northern Fur Seal.
Captain Charles Bryant gives a very interesting account of these
singular animals, in which he describes them as approaching and taking
possession of the shores of St. Paul's Island near the coast of Alaska,
about the middle, or towards the end of April, when the snow has melted
and the drift ice from the north has all passed. A few old male seals
first make their appearance and reconnoitre for two or three days,
afterwards climbing the slopes and taking possession of the rookeries,
each male reserving about a square rod for himself and his wives. The
scouts then return and younger male seals soon begin to arrive in small
detachments, but are prevented from landing by their elders and are so
forced to remain in the water or go to the upland above. By the middle
of June all the males have arrived, and having adjusted their
differences and divided the rookeries between them, await the arrival of
the females. "These appear in small numbers at first but increase as the
season advances, till the middle of July; when the rookeries are all
full, the females often overlapping each other. The bachelor seals swim
all day along the shore, escorting and driving the females on to the
rocks as fast as they arrive. As soon as a female reaches the shore, the
nearest male goes down to meet her, making meanwhile a noise like the
clucking of a hen to her chickens. He bows to her, and coaxes her until
he gets between her and the water so that she cannot escape him. Then
his manner changes, and with a harsh growl he drives her to a place in
his harem. This continues until the lower row of harems is nearly full.
Then the males higher up select the time when their more fortunate
neighbours are off their guard to steal their wives. This they do by
taking them in their mouths and lifting them over the heads of the other
females, and carefully placing them in their own harem carrying them as
carefully as cats do their kittens. Those still higher up pursue the
same method until the whole space is occupied. Frequently a struggle
ensues between two males for the possession of the same female, and both
seizing her at once, pull her in two, or terribly lacerate her with
their teeth. When the space is all filled, the old male walks around
complacently reviewing his family, scolding those who crowd or disturb
the others, and fiercely driving off all intruders. This surveillance
always keeps him actively occupied." After the birth of their young
which takes place towards the end of July, the old males who have been
four months without food, go to some distance from the shore to feed,
teaching the young to swim on their return. "By the last of October the
seals begin to leave the islands in small companies. The males going
last and by themselves."
The Walrus.
The Walrus. (_Trichechus rosmarus_) is a large and unwieldy creature. It
bears a stronger resemblance to the seal than to any other quadruped,
but it is distinguished by the proportions of its body and its
elephant-like tusks. Vast herds formerly frequented the shores of the
islands scattered between America and Asia, the coasts of Davis's
Straits and those of Hudson's Bay. They have been found as far south as
the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Now they are not met
with in great numbers, except on the shores of Spitzbergen and the
remotest northern borders of America. They attain to a very large size.
The head is oval, short, small, and flat in front, having the eyes set
in deep sockets so as to be moved forwards, or retracted at pleasure. On
land the Walrus is a slow and clumsy animal, but in the water its
motions are sufficiently quick and easy. When attacked, the Walrus is
both fierce and formidable, and if in company with its young, becomes
very furious, attempting to destroy its enemies by rising and hooking
its tusks over the sides of the boat, in order to sink it.
Captain Cook thus describes a herd of walruses he met with off the north
coast of America. He says: "They lie in herds of many hundreds upon the
ice, huddling over one another, like swine; and roar or bray so very
loud, that in the night, or in foggy weather, they gave us notice of the
ice, before we could see it. We never found the whole herd asleep, some
being always upon the watch. These, on the approach of the boat, would
awake those next to them; and the alarm being thus gradually
communicated, the whole herd would be awake presently. But they were
seldom in a hurry to get away, till after they had been once fired at.
They then would tumble over one another into the sea, in the utmost
confusion; and, if we did not, at the first discharge, kill those we
fired at, we generally lost them, though mortally wounded. They did not
appear to us to be that dangerous animal which some authors have
described, not even when attacked. They are more so in appearance than
reality. Vast numbers of them would follow, and come close up to the
oars; but the flash of the musket in the pan, or even the bare pointing
of one at them, would send them down in an instant. The female will
defend her young to the very last, at the expense of her own life,
whether in the water or upon the ice. Nor will the young one quit the
dam, though she be dead; so that, if one is killed, the other is certain
prey. The dam, when in the water, holds the young one between her fore
arms."
The Common Seal.
The True Seals are divided by Dr. Gray into thirteen genera with
eighteen species, of which the Common Seal, the Ringed Seal, the Harp
Seal, the Grey Seal, the Sea Leopard, the Sea Elephant, and the
Bladder-nose Hooded Seal are the best known. The common seal has a round
head which in front bears some resemblance to that of the otter. Its
average length is about five feet and its general colour of a yellowish
gray, varied or spotted with brown or blackish in different degrees,
according to the age of the animal. The Common Seal frequents the
sea-coasts perhaps throughout the world, but is most numerous in high
northern latitudes, and furnishes the inhabitants of those frigid
regions with nearly all their necessaries and luxuries. Enormous numbers
are caught annually for the sake of their skins and oil. The Harp Seal
frequents the coast of Newfoundland and is so named from the harp-shaped
band which marks the backs of the males. The Sea Elephant is the largest
of the seals. It is said to attain to the length of twenty-five to
thirty feet, and a circumference of fifteen to eighteen feet. It belongs
to the Antarctic sea.
"Seals when taken young," says Captain Brown, "are capable of being
completely domesticated, will answer to their name, and follow their
master from place to place. In January, 1819, a gentleman, in the
neighbourhood of Burnt-island, county of Fife, in Scotland, completely
succeeded in taming a seal. Its singularities attracted the curiosity of
strangers daily. It appeared to possess all the sagacity of a dog, lived
in its master's house, and ate from his hand. In his fishing excursions,
this gentleman generally took it with him, when it afforded no small
entertainment. If thrown into the water, it would follow for miles the
track of the boat; and although thrust back by the oars, it never
relinquished its purpose. Indeed, it struggled so hard to regain its
seat, that one would imagine its fondness for its master had entirely
overcome the natural predilection for its native element."
The Seal's Docility.
Notwithstanding the absence of external ears the common seal has a
remarkable sense of hearing and a keen taste for sweet sounds. Seals
have been known to follow a vessel, for miles, upon the deck of which a
violin or a flute has been played. To quote Sir Walter Scott:
"Rude Heiskar's seals, through surges dark,
Will long pursue the minstrel's bark."
They are also easily tamed, when they are found to be exceedingly
affectionate to those who treat them kindly. Some years ago a farmer,
residing on the east coast of Scotland, close to the sea-shore,
obtained a young seal for the amusement of his children, who soon became
exceedingly fond of it. Some time after, the farmer, having had a bad
year for his crops, was told by an old woman in the village that he
would never prosper as long as he kept that seal on his ground. The
foolish man giving heed to the superstition sent away the seal in a boat
some distance from land. Towards evening, as the children were sitting
on the sea-shore, what was their joy on beholding their seal rising out
of the water, and making its way straight back to them again. For some
months they were allowed to retain their pet; but as the farmer's
prospects did not brighten, he again determined to get rid of it, and
for that purpose, hearing of a ship that was soon to sail for the
Baltic, took the little seal, and gave it in charge to some sailors,
begging them to keep it in the hold of the ship till they arrived at
their destination, and then to throw it into the sea. This was
accordingly done, but the faithful seal was not to be daunted; ere long,
it reappeared, to the great delight of the children, who begged their
father never to send it away again. The farmer gave a doubtful assent,
for a suspicion still lurked in his mind, owing to the superstitious
words of the old woman, that the presence of the seal had an evil effect
upon his crops; and with these ideas preying upon his mind, the farmer
conceived the cruel thought of putting out the seal's eyes with a view
of preventing it from finding its way back, and again sending it away to
sea. Unknown to his children, he carried this barbarous plan into
execution; and they only discovered the loss of their favourite too late
to aid in its recall, as the ship in which it had been placed had
already sailed for Norway. Some days after the departure of the vessel,
a fearful storm arose. The farmer and his family were glad enough to
close up their shutters, and shut out as much as possible the wailings
of the wind, as it swept in furious gusts round the house. They had
scarcely retired to rest, when a faint and plaintive cry struck upon
their ears--and repeated again it seemed to be--during the momentary
lulls of the storm. The farmer continued to listen, but hearing nothing
more, he descended to the front door and opened it; a dark object lay
before him, on the very threshold, and stooping down to touch it, what
was his astonishment to behold the poor blind, devoted little seal,
apparently dead. The farmer was greatly touched; he took up the little
body gently and carried it into the kitchen, and used every effort to
restore it to life but in vain.
ORDER V.
Whales and Dolphins.
This order is divided into two sub-orders, the one characterised by the
possession of teeth, and the other being toothless.
The Right Whale.
The Right Whale when fully grown, attains to from fifty to sixty-five
feet in length, and to from thirty to forty feet in circumference. It is
thickest behind the fins. When the mouth is open, it presents a cavity
as large as a room, and capable of containing a boat full of men. Its
tongue is said to be as large as a stout feather-bed. The tail is a
powerful instrument of motion and defence: it is only five or six feet
long, but its motions are rapid, and its strength immense. The eyes are
situated in the sides of the head; they are very small, being little
larger than those of an ox. The whale has no external ear, but there is
a small orifice under the skin for the admission of sound. On the most
elevated part of the head are two blow holes six or eight inches in
length. The mouth, instead of teeth, has two rows of whalebone, each of
which contains more than three hundred laminae, the longest of which are
about ten or eleven feet. A large whale sometimes contains a ton and a
half of whalebone. The colour of the old whale is gray and white, that
of the young ones a sort of bluish black. Immediately beneath the skin
lies the blubber, or fat; its thickness round the body is eight or ten
or twenty inches, varying in different parts: the lips are composed
almost entirely of blubber. A large whale yields about twenty tons of
oil, which is expressed from the blubber. It is for this and the
whalebone that this animal is deemed so valuable, and for which it is so
much sought by whalefishers. The sense of seeing in the whale is very
acute. Under the surface of the water they discover one another at an
amazing distance. They have no voice, but in breathing or blowing they
make a loud noise.
The usual rate at which whales swim seldom exceeds four miles an hour,
but for a few minutes at a time they are capable of darting through the
water with amazing velocity, and of ascending with such rapidity as to
leap above the surface. This feat they perform as an amusement,
apparently to the high admiration of distant spectators. Sometimes they
throw themselves in a perpendicular posture, with the head downwards,
and rearing their tails on high, beat the water with awful violence.
Sometimes they shake their tails in the air, which, cracking like a
whip, resound to the distance of two or three miles. The flesh of the
whale, though it would be rejected by the dainty palates of refined
nations, is eaten with much relish by the Eskimo, and the inhabitants
along the coasts of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, who esteem it a
staple article of subsistence.
Other whales of this sub-order are the common Fin Whale, which is said
to reach eighty feet in length, the lesser Fin Whale and the Humpback
Whale. In these, the yield of whalebone and oil is so small that they
are not thought worth the trouble of catching.
The Sperm Whale.
The Sperm Whale rarely exceeds sixty feet in length and lives in warm
regions, such as the Indian Ocean; rarely, if ever, visiting Arctic or
European seas. Its yield of oil is said to be less than that of the
Greenland whale but it is of a finer quality. Ambergris is also produced
from the body of the sperm whale.
The Dolphin.
This is a large creature, so like the porpoise that he has been often
confounded with it. He is, however, much larger, sometimes measuring
from twenty to twenty-five feet in length. The body is roundish, growing
gradually less towards the tail; the nose is long and pointed, the skin
smooth, the back black or dusky blue, becoming white towards the belly.
He is entirely destitute of gills, or any similar aperture, but respires
and also spouts water through a pipe of semi-circular form placed on the
upper part of the head. There are several varieties of dolphins,
including the Long-nosed Dolphins of the rivers of Asia and South
America and the Classical Dolphin of the Mediterranean (_Delphinus
delphis_) The former are separately classified, and the family of the
latter includes the White Whale, the Narwhal, the Common Porpoise and
the Grampus. The dolphin is gregarious in its habits, herding and
travelling in large shoals. It may sometimes be seen sporting in the
bays and rivers of New York and is always a pretty sight.
The White Whale.
The White Whale (_Beluga catodon_) is the whale which Dr. R. Brown calls
_the_ whale of Greenland. It is the whale which the Greenlander and the
Eskimo find so valuable for its oil and flesh, the latter of which they
dry for winter use. They are sometimes called sea pigs, from a fancied
resemblance they bear to the pig when floundering in the sea, and
sometimes sea canaries, on account of their peculiar whistle, which
resembles that of a bird.
The Narwhal.
The narwhal (_Monodon monoceros_) is found frequently in company with
the white whale, and inhabits much the same geographical area. It is
distinguished by the possession of a tusk, the aim and purpose of which
has been much debated. "It has been supposed to use it," says Dr. Brown,
"to stir up its food from the bottom, but in such a case the female
would be sadly at a loss. Fabricius thought that it was to keep the
holes open in the ice during the winter; and the following occurrence
seems to support this view. In April, 1860, a Greenlander was travelling
along the ice in the vicinity of Christianshaab, and discovered one of
those open spaces in the ice, which, even in the most severe winters,
remain open. In this hole hundreds of narwhals and white whales were
protruding their heads to breathe, no other place presenting itself for
miles around. It was described to me as an Arctic 'Black Hole of
Calcutta' in the eagerness of the animals to keep at the place."
"Neither the narwhal nor the white whale," he continues, are timid
animals, but will approach close to, and gambol for hours in the
immediate vicinity of the ship." The oil is highly esteemed, and the
flesh is very palatable. The skin of the narwhal boiled to a jelly is
looked upon, and justly so, as one of the prime dainties of a
Greenlander.
The Common Porpoise.
The Porpoise resembles the dolphin in general appearance. Its length,
from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail, is from five to eight
feet; and the width about two feet and a half. The figure of the whole
body is conical; the colour of the back is deep blue, inclining to
shining black; the sides are gray, and the belly white. When the flesh
is cut up, it looks very much like pork; but, although it was once
considered a sumptuous article of food, and is said to have been
occasionally introduced at the tables of the old English nobility, it
certainly has a disagreeable flavour. Their motion in the water is a
kind of circular leap; they dive deep, but soon again rise up in order
to breathe. They are seen in nearly all seas, where they sport with
great activity, chiefly on the approach of a squall.
The Grampus.
The Grampus (_Orca Gladiator_) is the natural enemy of the whale and the
seal, who hold him in mortal terror. His swallow is so great that he can
take a porpoise or a seal whole, and has been known to swallow several
in succession. The whale escapes him by getting among the ice, whither
it is said the grampus will not follow him.
ORDER VI.
The Sea Cow.
The Sea Cow is an aquatic vegetarian who lives on the coast. Of the
three genera which constitute the family _Manatidæ_ one is now said to
be extinct. The genus Manatus contains two species, one belonging to
South America and the other to the West Coast of Africa. The Dugong
(_Halicore Dugong_) which attains to a length of nine or ten feet at
maturity produces oil having similar medicinal properties to that
obtained from the Cod's liver. It inhabits the Indian Ocean, the Red
Sea, the neighbourhood of the Malay Islands and the North and East
coasts of Australia.
ORDER VII.
Hoofed Animals.
The order of hoofed animals includes a number of well known species, of
which the Horse, the Ass, the Ox and the Sheep among the tame, and the
Rhinoceros, the Hippopotamus, the Boar and the Bison among the wild are
familiar examples. The order is divided into two sub-orders and these
into numerous families. The sub-orders are, I, The Perissodactyla, which
includes three families of animals characterised by an odd number of
toes in their hind feet, the horse having one, and the Rhinoceros three.
II, The Artiodactyla which includes seven families of animals all having
an even number of toes.
The Horse.
The horse stands first among the hoofed animals, as the friend and
servant of man. He has a history which is full of interest but which it
is quite impossible to give within the limits of our present
opportunity. He is mentioned in both classical and Biblical history at
an early period, but there is reason to believe that he flourished in
prehistoric times. He was used by the Greeks in their public games, the
chariot race being one of their most popular forms of entertainment; he
was also employed by them for the purposes of war, of which the writings
of Homer and other classical authors give abundant proof. First used
apparently to draw the chariot only, the adaptation of the means to the
end soon suggested to man the propriety of mounting his back, and from
the throne he thus acquired man has since conquered the whole world.
Man's first appearance on horseback doubtless suggested the fable of the
Centaur; those unaccustomed to the sight imagining that they beheld a
monster, half man and half horse, as it is said the aborigines of
America did when they first saw Spanish equestrians. The Egyptians are
said to have been the first to cultivate the horse, and the Persians the
first to use him in battle.
Arabian Horses.
The beauty, strength and speed of the Arabian horse are well known, and
the affection which subsists between him and his master is the basis of
many a pathetic story. These horses are generally of a brown colour; the
mane and tail being short, and the hair black and tufted. The Arabs for
the most part use the mares in their ordinary excursions, as they are
less vicious than the males, and are more capable of sustaining
abstinence and fatigue.
The Arab often shares his tent with his mare, the husband, the wife, the
child, the mare, and the foal, lying together indiscriminately; and the
youngest branches of the family embracing the neck, or reposing on the
body, of the mare, without any idea of fear or danger.
St. Pierre in his "Studies of Nature" tells a pretty story of the Arab's
affection for his horse: "The whole stock of a poor Arabian of the
desert consisted of a beautiful mare; this the French consul at Said
offered to purchase, with an intention to send her to Louis XIV. The
Arab, pressed by want, hesitated a long time, but at length consented,
on condition of receiving a very considerable sum of money, which he
named. The consul wrote to France for permission to close the bargain;
and, having obtained it, sent the information to the Arab. The man, so
indigent as to possess only a miserable covering for his body, arrived
with his magnificent courser; he dismounted, and first looking at the
gold, then steadfastly at his mare, heaved a sigh. 'To whom is it,'
exclaimed he, 'that I am going to yield thee up? To Europeans! who will
tie thee close, who will beat thee, who will render thee miserable!
Return with me, my beauty, my jewel! and rejoice the hearts of my
children.' As he pronounced the last words, he sprang upon her back, and
was out of sight almost in a moment." This story forms the subject of
the well known ballad by the Hon. Mrs. Norton, entitled "The Arab's
farewell to his steed."