NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 217 



if not unprecedented. Captain Gray in a communication to the 

 Royal Geographical Society (Proceedings Roy. Geog. Soc, vol. iii. p. 

 741,) says, that for the last two years there has been very little 

 southerly drift, probably owing to the severity of the weather. 

 This caused the lanes and pools of open water rapidly to be 

 covered with bay ice, thus keeping the ice closed, and preventing 

 the wash of the water from cutting into it and causing its rapid 

 disruption and consequent disappearance. In the chart accompany- 

 ing Captain Gray's communication the ice, in the months of April 

 and May, 1881, is shewn to extend in a N.E. direction from the 

 east point of Iceland to Bear Island, where it takes a rapid bend to 

 the E.S.E., reaching within 2£° of the North Cape. 



On the 23rd May, Captain Gray was imbedded in the floe-ice, 

 with only a small hole of water to be seen here and there, and 

 with 300 miles of ice to force a passage through before he could 



»hope to reach the Spitzbergen "land-water" which formed his 

 destination. Should the prevailing winds this winter in these 

 latitudes be northerly, Captain Gray is of opinion that in the 

 spring the ice will be met with approaching the Faroe Islands on 

 the west and the coast of Norway on the east. I am not aware 

 that there is any record of so remarkable a "south ice" year as that 

 of 1881. Notwithstanding this barrier, the "Eclipse" was in the 

 "land-water" on the 3rd June, saw her first whales on the 5th, 

 and on the 7th made her first capture. 



The Seal which occurs in such enormous packs in the Greenland 

 seas is known by the sealers as the Saddleback or Harp Seal 

 (Phoca groenlandica, Fab.). At all times restless and gregarious 

 in its habits, this species migrates to the ice in the Greenland 

 seas in countless numbers to produce its young; this takes place 



I with great regularity, and the sealers know almost to a day when 

 the old Seals will be found upon the ice. The young are almost 

 all born by the 1st of April, and on the 3rd the slaughter 

 takes place. Captain Gray gives a very charming picture of the 

 interesting habits of the Seals when on the ice tending their young. 

 He says, "Towards night the old Seals take the water to feed, 

 returning to their young in the morning, and lying on the ice with 

 them the whole day. From what I saw, the young one draws upon 

 its mother for nourishment at least once every hour, apparently to 

 the old one's great relief. It is very interesting to watch them 

 together, they seem to be so attached to one another. When an 



