100 ARCTIC ZOOLOGY. 



and nothing can withstand his rage Avhen provoked. I have 

 seen one of them after being hoisted on board, from the 

 boat in which it had been carried apparently dead, from 

 the blows inflicted on its head upon the ice, unexpectedly 

 recover, and, seizing in its teeth the nearest object Avithin 

 reach, tear away such a portion as it could grasp. Even 

 after death this irritation is strikingly manifest, as the mus- 

 cular parts of the animal, though stripped of the external 

 integuments, still retain the principle of vitality, and con- 

 tinue starting and quivering long after dismemberment of 

 the body has taken place. Distinct portions of the flesh 

 exhibit similar appearances ; and it has often occurred 

 that when under the hasty process of taking off the seal's 

 skin and blubber, and although the animal has previously 

 bled in profusion, as it would seem to exhaustion, yet in that 

 mutilated state it has been seen, when heaved overboard, 

 to swim off with vivacity. These seals are in best con- 

 dition in May and June ; but in the succeeding months 

 they become quite lean and shy, and they are then seldom 

 looked after for the sake of their fat. Seal oil is considered 

 much more valuable than the whale oil, and is carefully 

 kept apart for particular purposes. The greatest numbers 

 are killed annually at the Spitzbergen fishery, and in that 

 part of Davis's Strait which is known by the name of the 

 South-west Country, about the sixty-fourth degree of latitude. 

 Tn the higher latitudes to the north-westward of Disko, 



