304 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [ Vou. ILI. 
century, for we know that cetaceous animals in general live longer than 
quadrupeds ; and, as the seal fills up the chasm between the one and the 
other, it must participate of the nature of the former, and consequently 
live much longer than the latter.” The Newfoundland seals probably visit 
the Irish coat. A number of seals were killed on the west coast of 
Ireland in 1856, among them the old harp, and Sir William Logan gives 
an account of the skeleton of this kind of seal having been found 
embedded in the clay around Montreal 40 feet deep. 
The Phoca cristata, or hooded seals, are so called from a piece of loose 
skin on the head, which can be inflated at pleasure. When menaced or 
attacked the hood is drawn over the face and eyes asa defense. The 
female is not provided with a hood. An old dog-hood is a very 
formidable animal. The male and female are generally found together, 
and if the female happens to be killed first, the male becomes furious. 
Sometimes 10 or a dozen men have peen engaged upwards of an hour in 
despatching one of them. I have known a half a dozen hand-spikes to be 
broken in endeavoring to kill one of these dog-hoods. They frequently 
attack their assailants, and snap off the handles of the gaffs as if they were 
cabbage stalks. When they inflate their hoods it is very difficult to kill 
them. Shot does not penetrate the hood, and unless the animal can be 
hit somewhere about the side of the head it is almost a hopeless case to 
attempt to kill him. They are very large, some of their pelts which I 
have measured being from 14 to 18 feet in length. The young hoods 
are called “blue backs.” Their fat is not so thick nor so pure as that of the 
harps, but their skins are of greater value. They slso breed further to 
the north than the harps and are generally found in great numbers on the 
outer edge of the ice. They are said not to be so plentiful and to cast 
their young a few weeks later than the harps. 
The harbour seal Phoca vitulina frequents the harbors of Newfound- 
land summer and winter. Numbers are taken during the winter in seal 
nets. 
. The square flipper, which is perhaps the great seal of Greenland Phoca 
barbata, is now seldom seen. 
The walrus 7rzchecus rosmarus, sometimes called the sea horse or sea 
cow is now seldom met with. Formeriy this species of seal was 
frequently captured on the ice. This animal resembles the seal in its 
body and limbs, though different in the form of its head, which is armed 
with two tusks, sometimes 24 inches long, consisting of coarse ivory ; in 
this respect much like an’elephant. The under jaw is not provided with 
any cutting or canine teeth, and is compressed to afford room for the 
tusks, projecting downwards from the upper jaw. It is a very large 
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