SECOND PART
CHAPTER 14: The South Pole
(continued)
"Master is well aware," Conseil replied, "that I'm not seasoned in
practical application. When master has told me these animals' names . . ."
"They're seals and walruses."
"Two genera," our scholarly Conseil hastened to say, "that belong
to the family Pinnipedia, order Carnivora, group Unguiculata,
subclass Monodelphia, class Mammalia, branch Vertebrata."
"Very nice, Conseil," I replied, "but these two genera of seals
and walruses are each divided into species, and if I'm not mistaken,
we now have a chance to actually look at them. Let's."
It was eight o'clock in the morning. We had four hours
to ourselves before the sun could be productively observed.
I guided our steps toward a huge bay that made a crescent-shaped
incision in the granite cliffs along the beach.
There, all about us, I swear that the shores and ice floes
were crowded with marine mammals as far as the eye could see,
and I involuntarily looked around for old Proteus, that mythological
shepherd who guarded King Neptune's immense flocks. To be specific,
these were seals. They formed distinct male-and-female groups,
the father watching over his family, the mother suckling her
little ones, the stronger youngsters emancipated a few paces away.
When these mammals wanted to relocate, they moved in little jumps made
by contracting their bodies, clumsily helped by their imperfectly
developed flippers, which, as with their manatee relatives,
form actual forearms. In the water, their ideal element, I must say
these animals swim wonderfully thanks to their flexible backbones,
narrow pelvises, close-cropped hair, and webbed feet.
Resting on shore, they assumed extremely graceful positions.
Consequently, their gentle features, their sensitive expressions
equal to those of the loveliest women, their soft, limpid eyes,
their charming poses, led the ancients to glorify them by metamorphosing
the males into sea gods and the females into mermaids.
I drew Conseil's attention to the considerable growth
of the cerebral lobes found in these intelligent cetaceans.
No mammal except man has more abundant cerebral matter.
Accordingly, seals are quite capable of being educated;
they make good pets, and together with certain other naturalists,
I think these animals can be properly trained to perform yeoman
service as hunting dogs for fishermen.
|