626 PHOCA FCETIDA KINGED SEAL. 



In addition to the account of the Rough or Ringed Seal given 

 by Mr. Kumlien which is by far the most important single con- 

 tribution to its history I have met with I quote the following. 

 Mr. Robert Brown, in his account of the Mammals of Greenland, 

 says : " They delight to live in retired bays in the neighbor- 

 hood of the ice of the coasts, and seldom frequent the open 

 sea. In the Greenland and Spitzbergen Seas they chiefly live 

 upon the floes in retired situations at a considerable distance 

 from the margin of the ice. Dr. Wallace observed them for a 

 considerable time in the months of June and July, between IS". 

 lat. 76 and 77, in possession of a large floe, part of which was 

 formed of bay ice, where they had their 'blow-holes' (theatluk 

 of the Danes) ; his ship lay ice-bound for nearly three weeks, 

 at about three miles from this large floe, and hence he had con- 

 siderable opportunity of observing them. They passed the 

 greater portion of their time apparently asleep beside their 

 holes ; and he never saw them all at one time off the ice, unless 

 alarmed by parties from the ship or by the Polar Bear. When 

 the ice slackened away and the sheets of open water formed 

 around the ships, the Seals used to swim near them ; and occa- 

 sionally at these times a few were killed. In the water they are 

 very cautious, swimming near the hunter, gazing on him as if 

 with feelings of curiosity and wonder ; but on the ice beside 

 their blow-hole it is almost impossible for the hunter to ap- 

 proach them, so much are they on the alert and so easily 

 alarmed. In Davis's Strait it especially feeds about the base 

 of icebergs and up the ice-fjords. The great ice-fjord of Jak- 

 obshavn is a favorite haunt of theirs; the reason for this pre- 

 dilection is apparently that their food is found in such localities 

 in greater abundance. The bergs, even when aground, have a 

 slight motion, stirring up from the bottom the Crustacea and 

 other animals on which the Seals feed; the native, knowing 

 this, frequently endangers his life by venturing too near the 

 iceberg, which not unfrequently topples over upon the eager 

 Seal-hunter." * 



Dr. Kane thus describes their behavior when basking on the 

 ice. Writing under date of May 20 he says: 



" The seal are out upon the ice, one of the most certain signs 

 of summer. They are few in number, and very cautious. We 

 notice that they invariably select an open floe for their hole, 



* Brown, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1868, pp. 414, 415; Man. Nat. Hist., 

 Geol., etc., of Greenland, Mammals, pp. 44, 45. 



