BULLETIN OF TIIE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 21 



ceeds all others." This is in all probability the species called by the 

 natives the gra or jar seal. It much resembles the harbor seal, but is 

 even smaller, the adult being- about 5 feet long, and the female even less. 

 Several were killed while I was on the coast, but I did not obtain them. 

 i sent word, however, to have them •• salted down" for me, and shall 

 doubtless obtain them on my next visit to the coast. It has a peculiar 

 habit of balancing itself and tilting backward and forward when in the 

 water, much resembling the bobbing of a bottle when thrown overboard. 

 It occurs near shore. 



The Bearded s^al (Erignathus barbatus Fabricius) is probably the 

 "square flipper," as it is called here. It is found generally on the ice 

 and is of immense size. Several were captured while I was here. Their 

 average height is 8 to even 12 feet, their weight 500 to 1,000 pounds, 

 and their yield of oil 30 to 10 or more gallons. They occur singly and 

 occasionally, I believe accompanied by their young, which are found 

 with them just before the breaking up of the ice in spring. It is the 

 largest species of seal found on the Atlantic seaboard. They are re- 

 garded as a great prize by the inhabitants, the yield of oil being so 

 large, and the skin furnishing so much material for boots, gloves, mit- 

 tens, &c. 



The Gray seal (Salichcerus grypus Fabricius) so closely resembles the 

 bearded seal, first mentioned, that the two are doubtless often con- 

 founded. It is credited to the North Atlantic and the straits of Belle 

 Isle as also the Labrador coast, but it occurs so rarely as to deserve no 

 special attention here. It is shorter and the skull much larger than is 

 the bearded seal, which it so eloselv resembles. 



The Harp seal (Phoca granlandica Fabricius) is the Greenland, or 

 saddleback seal of Labrador and Greenland coasts which, with its next 

 neighbor, the hood seal, affords such rare sport to the seal hunters in 

 the spring and fall of each year. The general color of the male is yel- 

 lowish white, the nose and face black, as are also several lines forming 

 a fancied resemblance to a harp upon the back of the animal. The 

 female resembles the male, but has the black indistinct or wholly want- 

 ing, the yellowish white inclining to grayish to compensate. The young 

 are light golden-yellow or white when born and gradually become dirty 

 yellowish or white, like the adult, as they grow older, but when young 

 distinctly spotted more or less according to age. They are then called 

 •• whitecoats," and require five years to mature. Its size is inferior to 

 that of the hood seal. 



Of this species, Samuel Bobertson. in the Transactions of the Literary 

 and Historical Society of Quebec, in an article entitled -Xotes on the 

 coast of Labrador," says : " The harp seal is found from the river Saint 

 Lawrence to the Arctic Ocean, and from Greenland eastward to Nova 

 Zembla. Its usual size is 7 feet in length, I feet in girth. For forty- 

 two days the young have the hair yellowish white: it then changes to 

 mottled black and light blue. It grows for three years. They are more 



