REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 13 



In connection with the researches of Mr. Turner in Northern Labra- 

 dor, it may be stated that the Institution, in return for the many favors 

 rendered by the Hudson's Bay Company in that connection, ottered to 

 present to it a series of his collections, to be sent to such point as it 

 might designate. Professor Dawson, of McGill College, of Montreal, 

 asked the company to indicate the Redpath Museum, of which he was 

 the director, as the repository in question. This was assented to, and 

 the Institution has promised that the collection shall be forwarded as 

 soon as the expedition is completed and the materials can be suitably 

 overhauled. 



Dr. C. Hart Merriam, of Locust Grove, N. T., one of the most ac- 

 complished of the young school of American naturalists, has been 

 very much interested in questions of the specific relationships and the 

 natural history of the American seals, and, for the purpose of studying 

 this group of animals, left his home February 21, 1883, and proceeded 

 by rail to Halifax, whence, sailing per steamship Newfoundland, he 

 reached Saint John's, Newfoundland, on the night of March 2, after 

 passing through nearly 500 miles of " pan-ice." Through the courtesy 

 of J. & W. Stewart, and the kindness of their manager, John Syme, 

 esq., he was accorded the rare privilege of visiting the seal fishery as a 

 guest upon their fine steamship Proteus, Capt. Eichard Pike, master. 

 At G o'clock on the morning of the 10th of March the Proteus left, and 

 encountered a belt of heavy drift-ice near the island of Baccalieu, 

 remaining beset in the proper field-ice at 11 p. m. the same day. From 

 that time until the return no open water was seen excepting in narrow 

 leads and ice-holes, her progress being exceedingly slow, and she was 

 often nipped, and several times jammed in the heavy ice. 



Seals were first met with in numbers on the 18th, in latitude 52° 42' 

 N. They were the large hooded or bladder-nose seal (Cystophora cris- 

 tata), and no less than a thousand were killed and hauled aboard that 

 day. When not beset, the steamer was among the " hoods " the greater 

 part of the time till the 29th, when the cargo was completed, every 

 available space having been filled with skins and fat. Returning in a 

 storm, during which the vessel, thus heavily laden, narrowly escaped 

 being swamped, the party re-entered the harbor of Saint John's on the 

 1st of April. This trip was one of the quickest and most successful on 

 record, the skins and fat of 12 harp seals and 14,G23 hooded seals, 

 weighing gross G8G£ tons, being deposited in the company's factory. 



The results of this expedition, from a scientific point of view, were 

 particularly gratifying, the specimens obtained being of extreme rarity 

 both in the museums of this country and in those of Europe. They 

 consisted of the skins and skulls of 7 harp seals (Phoca grcenlandica), 

 and 112 hooded seals (chiefly skulls) of both sexes and all ages. In 

 addition to these, Dr. Merriam had the good fortune to procure a full 

 grown foetus of the square flipper seal (Erignathus barbatus), which is 

 supposed to be unique. 



