XX NATURAL HISTORY. 



round was then completely exhausted ; so they broke up into several smaller parties, 

 and dispersed in various directions. In the month of May, the Rough Seal, with its 

 young, lie basking in the sun, close to holes in the ice, and are at that time very diffi- 

 cult to approach; but the natives imitate both their cry and action so exactly as to 

 deceive the animals until they get sufficiently near to strike them with their spear. 

 Fabricius says, it is the most heedless of all the Seals, as well on the ice as in the 

 water : from our experience, we would certainly give them a very different character, 

 for none of our sportsmen were ever able to get sufficiently near to shoot them. 

 The natives of Boothia say they are not in their prime until the third year ; and we 

 never heard them complain of the offensive smell, which their more fastidious brethien 

 in Greenland are said to dislike so extremely. The blood of the Rough Seal answers 

 all the purposes of glue. 



The Rough Seal resembles our common Seal, P. Vitulina, the principal differences 

 being in the more diminutive size of the P. Fwtida, its being clothed with a more 

 woolly coat, and some slight differences in its colour ; all of which may indeed be 

 fairly attributed to diflerence of food and chmate. 



The average length from the snout to the extremity of the tail, of twenty measured 

 by me, was 65 inches, the hind flippers extending 9 inches beyond the end of the tail ; 

 and the average weight of the same number was 199 lb. : the circumference imme- 

 diately behind the fore-flippers being 49.7 inches. The females are larger than the males. 



The average length of the young, when between five and six months old, was 

 38 inches ; the weight 49 lb. ; circumference as above, 28.6 inches ; length of the 

 alimentary canal, 49 feet 8 inches ; and of the ceecum, 3^ inches. 



It feeds chiefly on the Mj/sisjiuxuosus and other small Cancri. 



14.— PHOCA GRCENLANDICA (Harp Seal). 



Phoca Ghcenlandica. — Cuv: Reg. Anim. — vol. i., p. 168. 



Egede, Graiil. — p. 62, fig. A. 

 Habp Seal. — Perm: Arct. Zool. — vol. i., p. 163. 



Kai ro lik. — Esquimaux of Boothia. 



Unlike the preceding species, it is seldom met with on the fixed ice of the bays and 

 inlets, but prefers the loose floating floes which constitute what is termed by the whale 



