Page:Castaway on the Auckland Isles (IA castawayonauckla01musg).pdf/158

142 The females are of a grey, golden buff, or beautiful silver colour, sometimes spotted like the leopard, and are called tiger seals. Their fur is about an inch long, not very soft, but very thick, and particularly sleek and smooth. Their nose resembles that of the dog, but is somewhat broader; their scent appears to be very acute. The eyes are large, of a green colour, watery, and lustreless; when on shore they appear to be constantly weeping. I have heard sealers say that they have a very sharp eye, and can see a great distance; but I beg leave to correct those who are of that opinion, for I have every reason to believe, and am fully convinced, that such is not the case. On the contrary, their eye is not sharp, neither can they see far when on shore; but, as I have already noticed, their sense of smell is very keen. In the water—for which element chiefly their eye is evidently formed—I have no doubt but they see well. The ears are particularly small, tapering, and are curled in such a manner as to exclude the water; and their sense of hearing is not very acute. The mouth, which is prodigiously large, is furnished with teeth, four of which (the canine teeth) are an immense size. I have seen one of these measuring 3$7/8$ inches long by 3½ in circumference at the base. On the upper lip, on each side, are thirty bristles (they seldom deviate from this number) of a hard horny nature, and resembling tortoiseshell in appearance, from 6 to 8 inches long, gradually decreasing as they approach the nose to 1½ or 2 inches in length, and the regularity with which these bristles are arranged is strikingly admirable.

The females and young seals generally remain in the bays, and they appear to select bays which have wooded shores, most probably for the sake of the shelter which they and the long coarse dried grass afford, and which most likely they and their young require in those tempestuous regions, where only they are to be found; whilst during the greater part of the year the males, which are naturally much more hardy, remain outside, and fish amongst the