FORTY-SEVENTH DAY, JUNE 29I", 18CJ3. 



lu pursuance of Senator Morgan's enquiry of yesterday, I read a few 

 words on the subject of the hair-seals from the 1st Volume of the United 

 States Appendix to the Case, page 3G7. It is a part of Dr. Allen's 

 Article on tlie natural history of these animals, which has been fre- 

 quently alluded to. 



The great tribe of Pinnipeds is divisible into tliree quite distinct minor groups 

 termed i'amilies, namely, the ■walruses (family Odobenidw), the eared-seals (family 

 Olariidcr), and the common or earless seals (family Phocidce). Tliese groups diii'er 

 notably from each other in many points of structure. 



Then passing over to page 381 of the same book: 



The seals proper, or the hair-seals 



This writer classes the hair-seals as the seal proper 



Have no external ears, are short-necked, rather, thick-bodied, and have the hind 

 limbs permanently directed backward and useless for terrestrial locomotion. They 

 vary greatly in size, and so forth. 



The seals (that is to say, this variety of seals, those that he calls " seals proper ''), 

 unlike the walruses and eared-seals, are of almost Avorldwide distribution, being 

 found on the coasts of nearly all countries, except within the tropics; they also 

 ascend many of the larger rivers for long distances, and occur in some of the inland 

 seas, as the Caspian and others in Asia. 



Then further down : 



SeaLs, as a rule, are not iiolygamous, ''(referring, of course, to the Phocidw. these 

 hair-seals)", and resort to the land or ice fields to bring forth their young, according 

 to the species. They are also more or less migratory. 



Then in respect to the Harp-seal (on page 382 of the same Article) 

 ■which is a different species, classed as the Phoca groenlandica, by this 

 writer. 



Habitat: North Atlantic, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the North Sea north- 

 ward to the Arctic Sea; also Behring Sea. 



The harp-seal, known also as the saddle-back, white-coat (when young), Greenland 

 seal, etc., is by far the most important commercially of all the true seals, being the 

 principal basis of the Newfoundland and Jan Mayen seal lisheries. 



It is preeminently gregarious, migratory, and pelagic. It is nowhere a permanent 

 resident, and annually traverses a wide breadth of latitude. AUhough often met 

 with far out at sea, it generally keeps near the edges of drifting ice. It appears 

 never to resort to the land, and is seldom found on firm ice. 



About the beginning of March, thoy assemble at their favorite breeding stations, 

 selecting for this purpose immense ice fields far from land. Their best known 

 breeding grounds are the ice packs off the eastei'n coast of Newfoundland and about 

 the island of Jan Mayen. Oft" the Newfoundland coast the young are chiefly born 

 between the .5th and 10th of March ; at the Jan Mayen breeding grounds between 

 the l!3rd of March and the .5th of April. 



The females take up their stations on the ice very near each other, the young being 

 thtis sometimes born not more than 3 feet apart. The males accompany the 

 females to the breeding stations and remain in the vicinity, congregating mostly in 

 the open pools between the ice floes. The mothers leave their young on the ice to 

 fish in the neighborhood for their own subsistence, but they frequently return to 

 their young to suckle them. The young grow very rapidly, and when three weeks 

 old are sai(l to be nearly half as large as the old ones. 



The young are said not to voluntarily enter the water until at least twelve days 

 old, and that they require four or five days practice before they acquire sufficient 

 strength and proficiency in swimming to enable them to care for themselves. 



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