“The mother seal is not a very anxious nurse. She pays no heed if any one picks up her baby, carries it off, or treads on it. She leaves it for two or three days at a time, while she is off in the water enjoying herself; meantime the little one sleeps and ba-a-a-s, and does not seem to suffer from hunger. When the mother returns from her excursions she curls down by her baby and gives it plenty of rich milk. These baby seals have dark blue eyes, but the eyes become browner after a while. All seals have long, thick eyelashes. “As the baby seals grow older they begin to roll about the shore, which from much trampling has been worn into hollows filled with tide-water. These hollows are muddy and the seal mothers do not wish their babies to get into them. The naughty little seals, like frolicsome children, trot to the puddles and go into them a dozen times a day, and their mothers pull them out. “As the little ones reach the age of three months they go nearer the water’s edge in their rambles and venture in. At first they cannot swim, and clamber out, sputtering and spitting and crying ba-a-a at the top of their lungs. Still, after a little nap, they go back and try it again and again, and in a few days they know how to swim; but they are a full year old before they know how to dive, swim, fish, roll, and sleep in the water, as well as the adults. “In swimming the seal carries his long hind flippers stretched backwards to serve as a rudder, and uses the fore flippers for propulsion. When the little ones can swim they are weaned, and they betake themselves to the water to stay, and are able to catch squids and crustaceans for themselves. They are three or four months old when they thus go to the water to find a home, and they do not come back for two years. A seal can sleep as comfortably on the water as on shore. To sleep it turns on its back, holds its nose and feet above the surface, and takes a profound nap, gently rocked by the waves. “While the young seals are on shore the big seals defend them and take care of them so long as they keep at home. If they wander away, even though they do not go out of sight, they pay no attention to them. “By the middle of September the homes are broken up and the seals return to the water to remain until May or June. Now, my Catherine, that we have thus observed the seals in general, let us look after the making of your coat. The fur came neither from a big male seal, a baby seal, nor a mother seal. Then from what seal did it come?