Phocaea

“ At length the storm raged and increased to that degree, that they could neither gain Mitylene, nor perform what they ought for the dead; so that being driven back by the storm, they arrived with the fleet at Arginusæ. In this fight the Athenians lost five-and-twenty of their ships, and most of their men in them; but the Peloponnesians seventy-seven. There were so many ships and men destroyed, that all the sea-coasts of Cuma and Phocæa seemed to be filled with carcases and wrecks. ”

“ I have not seen the great seal sportive. A phoca has just come up with something white in its mouth, which it is eating—a fish, no doubt. This, too, it does in a playful manner, flinging open its jaws, and seeming to disport with it, in them. Full of the enjoyment of life they are; and the way up, through evolution, is to leave all this, and to acquire a multitude of cares, with gluttony, diseases, vices, cant—with a pat on the back from a poet, or so, now and again, making us out to be gods, and telling us to go to war. ”

“ Aristotle could not have had any knowledge of the great seal of the Frozen Sea, since in the time he lived all the north of Europe and of Asia was unknown, The Romans considered Gaul and Germany as their north, and the Greeks knew still less of the animals belonging to this part of the world; it is, therefore, very probable, that when Aristotle speaks of the phoca as a very common animal, he only means the Mediterranean seal.
These three species have many properties in common with each other; the females bring forth in winter, and place their young upon some sand-bank, rock, or small island. ”

“ As was pointed out when speaking of Arctatlantis, Arctirenia has one genus of Phocidæ (Phoca) in common with the North Atlantic, and three of the species of this genus appear to be actually identical in these two sea-regions, whilst a fourth Phoca, P. fasciata, is only found in the North Pacific. The Walrus, Trichechus, is again a form of marine mammals common to both the great northern sea-regions. ”

“ A third species, from the American coast of the North Pacific, has been described under the name of Phocaena vomerina, and another from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata as P. spinipennis. Nearly allied is Neophocaena phocaenoides, a small species from the Indian Ocean and Japan, with teeth of the same form as those of the porpoise, but fewer in number (eighteen to twenty on each side) , of larger size, and more distinctly notched or lobed on the free edge. It is distinguished from the common porpoise externally by its black hue and the absence of a dorsal fin. ”

“ Phacoid shell two and a half times as broad as the medullary shell, with eight pores on its radius, surrounded by one perfect chambered ring. Arms nearly lanceolate, in the middle part one and a half times as broad as at both ends, twice as long as the phacoid shell, at the distal end with a strong pyramidal terminal spine. Through the spongy framework of each arm shine sixteen to eighteen transverse bars (as septa of the joints) and six to eight longitudinal piercing beams. ”

“ Towards the end of the third century A.D., a holy man named Phocas dwelt outside the gate of Sinope . . . and lived by cultivating a little garden. . . . One night, some strangers knocked at his door, and he invited them to enter. . . . They told him that they were sent in search of a certain Phocas, who had been denounced as a Christian, and that they were commissioned to kill him wheresoever they should find him. The servant of God, without betraying any surprise, conducted them to a chamber of repose, . ”

“ The eloquent and ingenious Buffon was of opinion that the Phocæ approached to fish by a still more decisive criterion. “They are the only animals,” says he, “which have the foramen ovale open, and which can therefore live without respiring, and to whom water is as proper and suitable an element as air.” Theoretic views appear to have here led this excellent writer into an error, as it is now well known that the Phocæ cannot remain long in the water without coming to the surface to breathe. ”

“ Very rarely the spines are fenestrated (Pl. 35, fig. 1) ; only in one genus (Heliodrymus) they are all or partly branched (Pl. 33, fig. 9; Pl. 35, figs. 3, 5) .
The peculiar development of the phacoid shell has been already described by J. Müller (compare my Monograph, 1862, pp. 156, 438) .
The Central Capsule of the Phacodiscida is everywhere circular, lenticular, envelops the medullary shell, and is enclosed by the phacoid shell, perforated by the radial beams, which connect the latter to the former.
Synopsis of the Genera of the Phacodiscida. ”

“ Phoca here forms part of the parson’s flock. They are tame as porpoises. The cows are never killed, and the young are spared; when a battue of men-seals with gun and club takes place, it is during summer. ”

“ The early history of Phocis remains quite obscure. From the scanty notices of Greek legend it may be gathered that an influx of tribes from the north contributed largely to its population, which was reckoned as Aeolic. It is probable that the country was originally of greater extent, for there was a tradition that the Phocians once owned a strip of land round Daphnus on the sea opposite Euboea, and carried their frontier to Thermopylae; in addition, in early days they controlled the great sanctuary of Delphi. ”

“ I do not think the absence of reversions of structure in man is of much weight; C. Vogt, indeed, argues that [the existence of] Micr-cephalous idiots is a case of reversion. No one who believes in Evolution will doubt that the Phocae are descended from some terrestrial Carnivore. Yet no one would expect to meet with any such reversion in them. The lesser divergence of character in the races of man in comparison with the species of Simiadae may perhaps be accounted for by man having spread over the world at a much later period than did the Simiadae. ”

“ Phobanthropy, fō-ban′thrō-pi, n. a morbid dread of mankind.
Phocine, fō′sin, adj. pertaining to the seal family.—n. Phō′ca, a seal.—adj. Phocā′cean, relating to the genus Phoca.—n. a seal of this genus.—n. Phocæ′na, a genus of delphinoid odontocete cetaceans—the true porpoises.—adjs. Phō′cal; Phocæ′nine, like a porpoise. [L. phoca—Gr. phōkē, a seal.] ”

“ Many, if not all, of the species are polygamous, and the males frequently contend with desperate courage for the possession of a favourite female.
There is not much difference in the habits of the different genera or species of the Phocidæ; but while the great Arctic seal dives like the walrus, making a kind of semi-revolution as it goes down, the common seal (Phoca vitulina) , called by the hunters the stein-cobbe, from its custom of basking on the rocks, dives by suddenly dropping under water, its nose being the last part of its body which disappears, instead of its tail. ”

“ The flukes observed in Phoca vitulina are Distoma acanthoides and Amphistoma truncatum, the latter occurring also in P. grœnlandica. In another seal (P. barbata) we have D. tenuicolle. The nematodes are more numerous. The best-known is the maw-worm (Ascaris osculata) , which seems to be always present in full-grown seals of every kind. In the years 1862–64 I conducted a series of experiments with the eggs of this worm. I reared embryos both in salt and fresh water, but the administration of the young worms to various animals led to no result. ”

“ All horizontal planes which cut the axis at right angles are circles, and increase in size from the poles towards the equator. The most important ground-forms of this group are the phacoid (the lens or oblate spheroid) and the ellipsoid (or prolate spheroid) . Phacoids (or geometrical lenses with blunt margins) are very often presented by the central capsules of the Discoidea and of many Acantharia (Quadrilonchida and Hexalaspida) , but the lattice-shells of many Spumellaria and Acantharia exhibit the same form, as also do a few Phæodaria (e.g., Aulophacus) . ”

“ The teeth show that it is young.
The figure and description of the Petit Phoque of Buffon have had the following names given to them:—
Little Seal, by Pennant and Shaw. Phoca pusilla, Schreber, Säugeth. 314 (Peters) . Phoca parva, Bodd. Elench. 78. Otaria pusilla, Desm. N. Dict. Otaria Peronii, Desm. Mamm.
Fischer, in his ‘Synopsis,’ under Phoca pusilla, p. 252, gives the Cape of Good Hope and Rotteness Island, on the coast of Australia, as the habitat of the species.
The description of Cuvier much more nearly fits that of the young Arctocephalus nigrescens from the Falkland Islands. ”

“ The work of recognition thus far advanced by Justinian was perfected by the edict of the Emperor Phocas, who began to reign in 603. He also wrote to the Roman Bishop in 604, and acknowledged his spiritual supremacy. He was very liberal to the churches, and allowed the Pantheon, a temple dedicated to all the gods by his fathers, to be turned into a church, or "most strong hold," to all the saints. Phocas was a monster in crime, and therefore the better qualified for a patron of the Roman Bishop, who hailed him as the pious avenger of the church. ”

“ The pseudopodia, arising in a large bunch from the porochora of the capsule, and running along the branches of the radial spines, seem to be always numerous, richly branched, and with a strong tendency to form anastomoses. The peculiar form of their network is often exactly preserved in the conformation of the skeleton, produced by them. The peculiarities of this network require further accurate observations, as does the whole organisation of the Plectoidea. ”

“ But remote as is the antiquity, according to all human chronology, to which the fauna of these beds of marine detritus belong, the palæontologist detects among their post-tertiary fossils the phoca, balænæ of more than one species, fishes, articulata, and the shells of many mollusca still inhabiting the neighbouring ocean along the northern Atlantic coasts. The period, therefore, which embraces those relics of ancient life is the same to which man belongs ”

“ Yet why should not the solemn visaged, double-chinned phoca partake of one of the most universal habits of animal life—the love of frolic?—a desire which is equally as diffused throughout the living creation as the inclination for fighting. ”

“ The dentition of the Phocidæ varies considerably, in some the occasionally double-rooted molars acquiring a tuberculate, in others a saw-like or serrate character, while the incisors are notch-crowned. The bony cavity for the eye is open behind; the facial region is less prominently produced than in some of the feline Carnivora. The region of the brain-pan is relatively full, while the skull, as a whole, is elongated and flat. In youth, the cranium of the Pinnipedia has a predominating brain area, and the entire bony surface is smooth and featureless. ”

“ The fore limbs of the Phocidæ are relatively and absolutely shorter than in the Otariidæ. They are so attached to the body as to leave little else free then the hand. The nails are generally longish and claw-like, and the thumb does not so greatly exceed the other fingers as it does in the Otaries. It is on the hind legs that the main distinction is based. While the thigh-bones are uncommonly short, the leg-bones are relatively long, and directed backwards in a line with the spine, and closely bound to the tail by membrane as far as the heel itself. ”

“ The male of the northern Phoca groenlandica is tawny grey, with a curious saddle-shaped dark mark on the back; the female is much smaller, and has a very different appearance, being "dull white or yellowish straw-colour, with a tawny hue on the back;" the young at first are pure white, and can "hardly be distinguished among the icy hummocks and snow, their colour thus acting as a protection." ”

“ The truth connected [Pg 190] with the life of the fur-seal, as it herds in countless myriads on the Pribylov Islands of Alaska, is far stranger than fiction. Perhaps the existing ignorance has been caused by confounding the hair-seal, Phoca vitulina, and its kind, with the creature now under discussion. Two animals, more dissimilar in their individuality and method of living, can, however, hardly be imagined, although they belong to the same group, and live apparently upon the same food. ”

“ From those, and other discoveries of a like kind, this at least becomes apparent, that in the New World, as in the Old, the closing epoch of geology must be turned to for the initial chapters of archæology and ethnology. According to geological reckoning, much of the American continent has but recently emerged from the ocean. Among the organic remains of Canadian post-tertiary deposits are found the Phoca, Balœna, and other existing marine mammals and fishes along with the Elephas primigenius, the Mastodon Ohioticus, and other long-extinct species. ”

“ Fucoids and eggs of gasteropodous mollusk? Lower Old Red, Fife.
In the same grey paving-stones and coarse roofing-slates, in which the Cephalaspis occurs, in Forfarshire and Kincardineshire, the remains of marine plants or fucoids abound. They are frequently accompanied by groups of hexagonal, or nearly hexagonal markings, which consist of small flattened carbonaceous bodies, placed in a slight depression of the sandstone or shale. (See figs. 397 and 398.) They much resemble in form the spawn of the recent Natica (see [p.345] fig. 399.) ”

“ Some of the larger species wander far from their original home, and are not rarely found at distant localities as occasional visitors. In the Pacific and on the coast of Australia, where but a few large rivers enter the ocean, they are extremely rare and, in the Red Sea, they are absent. Many attain a large size, and almost all are eaten.
No fossil species have been as yet discovered.
Pogonias.—Snout convex, with the upper jaw overlapping the lower. Mandible with numerous small barbels. No canines. The first dorsal with ten stout spines. Two anal spines, the second very strong. ”