THE COMMON SEAL. 123 
of a few weeks destroy nearly 300,000 of these animals. The 
Greenland winter, it would appear, is too severe for these luck- 
less wanderers, and when 
it sets in, they accompany 
the field-ice, and remain on 
it until it is scattered and 
dissolved. Old and young 
being then deserted in the 
ocean, nature points out to 
them the course to their favourite icy haunts, and thither 
their herds hurry over the deep to pass an arctic summer. 
Winter returns, and with it commences again their annual 
migration from latitude to latitude. The Scotch ports, parti- 
cularly Aberdeen, fit out ships for the spring seal-catching on 
the American coast, and are generally successful in their under- 
takings. 
According to the different numbers and forms of their canine 
teeth and grinders, and to the deficiency or presence of an out- 
ward ear, the seal tribe is divided into many families, genera, 
and species, among which I shall select a few of the most re- 
markable for further notice. The Common Seal or Sea-calf, 
(Calocephalus vitulinus), 
which owes the latter name 
to the unharmonious ac- 
cents of its voice, attains a 
length of from five to six 
feet. It has a large round 
head, small short neck, and 
several strong bristles on each side of its mouth, large eyes, no 
external ears, and a forked tongue. It has six fore teeth in the 
upper jaw, four in the lower, a strong pointed canine tooth on 
each side in both jaws, and a goodly row of sharp and jagged 
grin fers, Woe to the poor herring whose evil star leads him 
between these engines of destruction—he is irrevocably lost ! 
Different species of common seals inhabit the Northern seas, 
from Greenland and Spitzbergen to the mouth of the Scheldt, 
and from the White Sea to the eastern coast of America. 
Others are found in the Antarctic seas. An excellent swimmer, 
the seal dives like a shot, and rises at fifty yards’ distance, often 
remaining fuil a quarter of an hour under the water—three 
K 
Greenland Seal. 
