CONTINUED VOYAGE OF THE TWO SHIPS. 61 



had no feeling of insecurity, as one lias in a thick fog 

 near land. 



The bird world did not change much; the stormy 

 petrel, however, preponderated. On the other hand, we 

 saw far more frequently a creature peculiar to the Arctic 

 regions, the Greenland seal (Phoca Grdiilandicai MiilL). 

 They stretched their black, flat heads out of the water 

 with great curiosity, but immediately disappeared, setting 

 at defiance every attempt to reach them with the deadly 

 shot. 



The appearance of these seals reminded us that we 

 were now in the neighbourhood of the seal- catchers, 

 that is, in that part of the northern icy sea where, 

 from the end of March to the end of April, the seals come 

 in thousands to the smooth floating ice to cast their 

 young ones. These " seal-coasts " change their position 

 somewhat every year, and range between 68° and 74° 

 N. Lat. and from 2° to 16° W. Long. It is a highly inte- 

 resting sight to see the seals assembled from all quarters 

 at this time. It is said that they not only come from the 

 coasts of Spitzbergen and Greenland, but even swim in 

 flocks from Nova Zembla. The whitish-coloured young 

 stay on the ice the first few days, and are then killed 

 with clubs by the parties of seal-hunters. The skin with 

 its underlying fat is brought on board. The skin and 

 fat of a young seal are worth from 7s. 6d. to 9s. ; besides 

 which they catch many old seals. The number caught 

 by a single Bremen ship now sometimes amounts to 

 from 8 to 10,000 seals; and one may form some idea of 

 the war of destruction waged against these harmless 

 creatures by man, when we hear that of European ships 

 in 1868, five German, five Danish, fifteen Norwegian, and 



