The Strand Magazine, Vol. 05, Issue 26, February 1893: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 05, Issue 26, February 1893: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
Another class of frivoller gets his opportunity because it is customary
to give various species of seals--divers species, one might
say--inappropriate names. He tells you that if you look for sea-lions
and sea-leopards, you will not see lions, nor even see leopards, but
seal-lions and seal-leopards, which are very different. These are called
lions and leopards because they look less like lions and leopards than
anything else in the world; just as the harp seal is so called because
he has a broad mark on his back, which doesn't look like a harp. Look at
Toby, the Patagonian sea-lion here, who has a large pond and premises to
himself. I have the greatest possible respect and esteem for Toby, but I
shouldn't mistake him for a lion, in any circumstances. With every wish
to spare his feelings, one can only compare him to a very big slug in an
overcoat, who has had the misfortune to fall into the water. Even his
moustache isn't lion-like. Indeed, if he would only have a white cloth
tucked round his neck, and sit back in that chair that stands over his
pond, he would look very respectably human--and he certainly wants a
shave.
[Illustration: THE BIG-BOOT DANCE.]
Toby is a low-comedy sea-lion all over. When I set about organizing the
Zoo Nigger Minstrels, Toby shall be corner-man, and do the big-boot
dance. He does it now, capitally. You have only to watch him from behind
as he proceeds along the edge of the pond, to see the big-boot dance in
all its quaint humour. Toby's hind flappers exhale broad farce at every
step. Toby is a cheerful and laughter-moving seal, and he would do
capitally in a pantomime, if he were a little less damp.
Toby is fond of music; so are most other seals. The complete scale of
the seal's preferences among the various musical instruments has not
been fixed with anything like finality; but one thing is certain--that
far and away above all the rest of the things designed to produce music
and other noises, the seal prefers the bagpipes. This taste either
proves the seal to be a better judge of music than most human beings, or
a worse one than any of the other animals, according as the gentle
reader may be a native of Scotland or of somewhere in the remainder of
the world. You may charm seals by the bagpipes just as a snake is
charmed by pipes with no bag. It has even been suggested that all the
sealing vessels leaving this country should carry bagpipes with them,
and I can see no sound objection to this course--so long as they take
all the bagpipes. I could also reconcile myself to a general extrusion
of concertinas for this useful purpose--or for any other; not to mention
barrel organs.
[Illustration: THE SEAL ROW.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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