CHAPTER III.

III.--THE EARLESS SEAL FAMILY (PHOCIDÆ).

General Characteristics--Peculiar Formation of the Hind Legs--Dentition--Swimming--THE COMMON SEAL--Range--Fight between a Seal and Salmon--Colour--Appearance--Annual Catch--Use of Skins in Greenland--Habits--THE RINGED SEAL--Appearance--Various Names--Odour--Flesh--Skin Clothes--Haunts--Modes of Capture--Range--THE GREENLAND, OR SADDLEBACK SEAL--Habits--Appearance--Names--Range--Migrations--“Seals’ Weddings”--Five Stages of Colour--Females--Weight--Seal Fisheries--Hunting--Implements of Slaughter--Various Operations--The Sealers--Oil, Skins, &c.--THE BEARDED SEAL--THE GREY SEAL--THE MONK SEAL--THE CRESTED OR BLADDER-NOSE SEAL--Range--Size--Ferocity--Character of the so-called Crest--Dentition--Colour--THE ELEPHANT SEAL--Peculiar Range--Proboscis--Scammon’s Account--Habits--Hunting--Hardships of the Hunters--Recreations of the Men--Blubber, Oil, and Skins--ROSS’S LARGE-EYED SEAL--THE SEA LEOPARD--WEDDELL’S SEAL--THE CRAB-EATING SEAL--Concluding Remarks--The Slaughter of Seals--Remedies 231

ORDER CETACEA.--WHALES.

Whales--Vulgar Notions--Characteristics External and Internal--Larynx--Tail--Skeleton--Classification--THE TOOTHED WHALES--ZEUGLODONS--SQUALODONS--PHOCODONS--RIVER DOLPHINS--SUSU, OR GANGETIC DOLPHIN--Description--Habits--Teeth--INIA--PONTOPORIA--ZIPHIOID WHALES--CUVIER’S WHALE--VAN BENEDEN’S WHALE--SOWERBY’S WHALE--NEW ZEALAND BERARDIUS--BOTTLEHEAD, OR COMMON BEAKED WHALE--SPERM WHALES, OR CACHALOTS--SPERM WHALE--Description--Range--Fishery--Incidents of the Chase--Habits--Harpooned--Treatment of the Carcass--SHORT-HEADED WHALE, OR SNUB-NOSED CACHALOT--DOLPHINS--CAAING, OR PILOT WHALE--RISSO’S GRAMPUS--COMMON PORPOISE--KILLER WHALE, OR ORCA--Ferocity--TRUE DOLPHINS--COMMON DOLPHIN--BOTTLE-NOSE DOLPHIN--WHITE WHALE--NARWHAL--THE WHALEBONE WHALES--Whalebone--GREENLAND, OR RIGHT WHALE--BISCAY WHALE--JAPAN WHALE--CAPE WHALE--SOUTH PACIFIC WHALE--Description of the Greenland Whale--Their Food and Mode of Feeding--Habits--Hunting--Treatment of Carcass--HUMP-BACKED WHALES--FIN WHALES, OR RORQUALS--SIBBALD’S RORQUAL--SULPHUR-BOTTOM WHALE--COMMON RORQUAL, OR RAZOR-BACK--LESSER RORQUAL--Concluding Remarks 245

ORDER SIRENIA (THE MANATEES).

Introductory Remarks--Mermaids--Position--General Characteristics of the Order--STELLER’S RHYTINA--Habits--Extinct--Dugong--Range-- Habits--Uses--Teeth--MANATEE--Distribution--Peculiar Mouth--Mode of Feeding--Story of “Patcheley,” a Tame Manatee--Halitherium and other Fossil Forms 268

ORDER PROBOSCIDEA (ELEPHANTS).

Order Proboscidea--Antiquity of the Elephant--Referred to in the Bible--Mentioned in the Apocrypha--War Elephants--Their Accoutrements--Hannibal’s Elephants--Elephants amongst the Romans--Skull--Dentition--Vertebræ--Odd Delusion about its Legs--Proboscis--Species--THE INDIAN ELEPHANT--Size--Range--Habits--Various Modes of Capture--Keddah--Used as a Labourer or Nurse--Sagacity--White Elephants--THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT--Characteristics--Range--Habits and Haunts--Hunting--Pitfalls--Aggageers Chasing--Elephant-Shooting--How the Natives Cut it up--FOSSIL ELEPHANTS AND THEIR ALLIES--Absurd Stories--MAMMOTH--How it was first Found--Story of the Fourth or Benkendorf’s Discovery--Range--MASTODON--DINOTHERIUM 273

ORDER HYRACOIDEA (CONIES).

What is the Coney?--Mention in the Bible--General Appearance--Real Place--Range--Varieties--Coney of the Bible--Cape Coney--Ashkoko of Abyssinia--Mr. Winwood Reade’s Account of the Habits of the Cape Coney--Skull, Dentition, Ribs, &c. 292

ORDER UNGULATA (HOOFED QUADRUPEDS).