03 - Within the Deep by R. Cadwallader Smith - Seals

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lessen three of Within the Deep by R. Cadwalader Smith.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Lessen three seals.
There are many different kinds of seal. The family is
a large one, but all have one thing in common,
the fish like body with toes joined together by a web.

(00:24):
Any One who has seen the diving power of a
seal and its wonderful way in the water, will agree
that the flippers of the seal are as useful as
the fins of the fish. In fact, the flipper beats
the fin, for the seal earns his dinner by chasing
and catching fish. He slips through the water with perfect
ease and seizes the darting fish in their own home.

(00:47):
The seal is nearly always hungry, but so wonderfully quick
that his hunting is made easy for him. It is
quite another matter on land, where his best pace is
a wattle and a shuffle, But his life is in
the wide sea, where he can feed and sleep as
easily as other mammals can on land. Seals are easily

(01:09):
tamed and soon become fond of their owners. Some fishermen
once caught a baby's seal, which they gave to a boy,
knowing his love of animals. The strange baby soon made
itself at home and loved to lie in the warmth
of the kitchen fire. It knew the voice of its
young master and would follow him like a dog. The

(01:30):
older it grew, the more milk and fish it needed
each day. At last, this food was not to be
easily obtained, and so the boy had to get rid
of his pet. He rowed out to sea, taking the
seal and let it free in the ocean to fend
for itself. But the seal would not leave him. It
swam swiftly round the boat, calling pitifully. Needless to say,

(01:54):
it was taken back again and well cared for. Seals
have even been trained to catch fish for their owners.
Being docile by nature and having larger brains than most animals,
they can be taught. Perhaps you have seen sea lions
performing surprising tricks, showing clearly how intelligent these fish like
creatures really are. The sea lions at the London Zoo

(02:18):
are not specially trained, but they are clever enough to
teach themselves, especially when rewarded by a few extra fish.
They know well the voice of their keeper and clap
with their flippers to let him know that feeding time
is near, and in many other amusing ways to prove
their intelligence. You have noticed, perhaps that these sea lions

(02:40):
can shuffle along on their hind flippers, which are turned
forward under the body. The real seals, however, cannot do this.
Their hind limbs, so wonderful in the water, are merely
dragged behind the body on land. Seal skin should be
called sea lions skin to be exact, for it is
the sea lions, not the true seals, which men kill

(03:03):
and rob of their lovely warm coats. The giant of
the seal family is the sea elephant, a big lumbering
fellow with a most peculiar nose. Of course, this gives
him his name, though it is not much like the
trunk of the real elephant. It is just the baggy
skin of his nose, a foot long, which hangs down

(03:24):
past his mouth. When the sea elephant is angry or excited,
this loose nose of his becomes filled with air and
bulges out. Our colored picture shows you mister sea elephant
full grown. His wife and children have ordinary seal noses.
Perhaps we should say wives, not wife, for he has many.

(03:47):
The sea elephants go to wild, lonely islands, and there
make their nurseries. Year after year, tens of thousands of
the big seals gather to fight and to rear their young.
The clumsy great father sea elephants fight terrible battles, and
at this time always seem to be in a very
bad temper, tearing each other with their tusk like teeth.

(04:11):
Their roaring can be heard far out at sea, But
the lady seals take no part in these combats. We
have no room in this lesson to look at all
the other kinds of seals, sea lions, sea bears, and walrus.
As we have already noticed, the seal skin sold in
shops is really the skin of a sea lion. Sometimes

(04:33):
these are called eared seals, for they possess little ears,
while the real seals have only small holes in the
sight of the head for ears. Again, there are some
eared seals whose fur is of no use to us,
for it lacks the deep underfur of the fur seals.
Nature gave this coat to the seal to protect him

(04:54):
from the cold, but it has caused his destruction, for
these animals were killed by the hun hundred thousand worse
than this, they were killed in the most cruel manner.
Laws have now been made to help protect the poor
fur seal from its merciless hunters. It lives in cold seas,
where its deep rich coat is a splendid protection. No

(05:17):
finer fur is there for keeping out cold and wet,
and the skillful furrier can make it into soft garments
of great value. The habits of these seals are strange. Indeed,
for nine or ten months of the year they wander
freely over the open seas. They die for their food
and sleep calmly amidst the restless heaving of the ocean.

(05:40):
This is the happy life of the seal, though enemies sharks,
killer whales and grumpuses sometimes snap him up as he sleeps. Then,
in the springtime there comes a change. The seal leave
the open sea and take to the land. They go
to their special breeding places, or rookeries, as they are called.

(06:02):
The big old man seals arrive first and haul themselves
on shore. Each chooses a spot for himself among the rocks.
He then settles down to defend it for more and
more old man seals come, all eager to own the
best places. The roaring and fighting go on day and night.

(06:23):
The gentle seal is now a savage beast covered with wounds.
Then the soft eyed female seals come ashore. Now the
thing is for each big male seal to claim as
many lady seals as he can. More fighting, roaring, and
tearing occur now, in which the lady seals are banged
about like footpaths. The strongest old man drags the female

(06:48):
seal away in his teeth and plumps her down in
his special part of the beach. Along comes another big
seal to take her away, and the fight begins again. Meanwhile,
the younger seals keep out of the way. Strange to say,
the fighting seals take no food at all, though they
are on the beach for several weeks. A few stones

(07:10):
is all they eat, though at other times they devour
numbers of fish at every meal. Exercises one how could
you tell the sea lion from the real seal? Two?
Where are the seal rookeries? What happens there in the springtime? Three?
Why is the sea elephant so named? End of lesson

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three