Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/103

Rh Being to be the companions and friends of man, clinging to him under every circumstance of poverty and distress. Their attachment, fidelity, and sagacity, should protect them from that ill-usage to which they are so constantly subjected." We now arrive at a group of carnivorous quadrupeds, whose structure is modified for a sphere of action and an economy almost exclusively aquatic. The anterior limbs, which in the Bats are enormously lengthened, are in the Seals reduced to extreme shortness, the bones being thick and compact. In both cases, however, the fingers are embraced in the integuments, and for a similar object, the production of a broad fanning surface, in the one instance to strike the air, in the other the water. The toes of the hind feet, which in these animals are directed backward, are connected by very wide membranes, so that they can be greatly dilated, and form very powerful oars. The paws are too short to be very effective instruments of terrestrial progression, but they assist the animal in climbing out of the water upon the rocks and masses of floating ice, on which it delights to bask in the sun. A singular sort of shuffling, jumping motion, of considerable quickness, is attained, however, on the land, by the vertical curving of the spine, assisted by the muscles of the trunk. The lengthened form of the body, which, owing to the narrowness of the