644 PHOCA GROENLANDICA HARP SEAL. 



appears to be a small circular area, having a breadth of about 

 four hundred miles, within which Jan Mayen Island occupies a 

 nearly central point. They are not, however, equally numer- 

 ous throughout even this limited district, but are most densely 

 massed between the 72d and 73d degrees of north latitude, 

 on or near the 7th meridian east of Greenwich. The exact 

 point, however, varies in different years, in accordance with 

 the varying position of the ice-fields, which is influenced by 

 the prevailing winds and the character of the season. Thus, 

 according to Dr. Wallace, as quoted by Mr. Brown, they were 

 found in 1859 "in considerable numbers not far from Iceland, 

 the most northerly point of which is in N. lat. 60 44' ; this 

 leads me to remark," Mr. Brown continues, "that the Seals 

 are often divided into several bodies or flocks, and may be at 

 a considerable distance from each other, although it is most 

 common to find these smaller flocks on the skirts or at no great 

 distance from the main body." Where the Seals that here con- 

 gregate in such numbers during the breeding season spend the 

 rest of the year is not well known. Says the writer last quoted, 

 " After the young have begun to take the water in the Spits- 

 bergen sea, they gradually direct their course to the outside 

 streams, where they are often taken in considerable numbers 

 on warm sunny days. When able to provide for themselves, 

 the females gradually leave them and join the males in the 

 north, where they are hunted by the sealers in the months of 

 May and June ; and it is especially during the latter month 

 that the females are seen to have joined the males ; for at the 

 ' old sealing ' (as this is called), in May, it has often been re- 

 marked that few or no males are seen in company with the 

 females. Later in the year, in July, there are seen, between the 

 parallels of 76 and 77 1ST., these flocks of Seals, termed by 

 Scoresby i Seal's weddings ' ; and I have found that they were 

 composed of the old males and females and the bluebacks [year- 

 lings and two-year-olds], which must have followed the old ones 

 in the north and formed a junction with them some time in 

 June. There is another opinion, that the old females remain 

 and bring their young with them north ; but all our facts are 

 against such a theory ( Wallace). 



"These migrations may vary with the temperature of the sea- 

 son, and are influenced by it ; it is possible that in the Spits- 

 bergen sea as the winter approaches they keep in advance of 

 it and retreat southward to the limit of the perpetual ice, off 



