ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 43 



back of the flippers, but fades out as it progresses. It has no appre- 

 ciable fur or iinderwool. There is no noteworthy difference as to 

 color or size between the sexes. So far as I have observed they are 

 not polygamous. They are .exceedingly timid and wary at all times, 

 and in ibhis manner and method they are diametrically opiDosed, not 

 by shape alone, but by habit and disposition, to the fashion of the fur 

 seal in especial and the sea lion. Their skin is of little value com- 

 paratively, but their chief merit, according to the natives, is the rela- 

 tive greater juiciness and sweetness of their flesh over even the best 

 steaks of sea lion or fur-seal pup meat. 



One common point of agreement among all autliors was, by my 

 observations of fact, so strikingly refuted, that I will here correct a 

 prevalent error made by naturalists who, comparing the hair seal 

 with the fur seal, state that in consequence of the peculiar structure 

 of their limbs their i:)rogi'ession on land is "mainly accomplished by a 

 wriggling, serpentine motion of the body, slightly assisted by the 

 extremities." This is not so in any respect; for whenever I have pur- 

 posely surprised these animals a few rods from the beach margin, 

 they would awake and excitedly scramble, or rather spasmodically 

 exert themselves to reach the water instantlj^ by striking out quickly 

 with both forefeet simultaneously, lifting in this way alone, and 

 dragging the whole body forward, without anj^ "wriggling motion" 

 whatever to their back or posterior parts, moving from 6 inches to 

 a foot in advance every time their forefeet were projected forward 

 and the body drawn along according to the violeuce of the effort and 

 the character of the ground ; the body of the seal then falls flat upon 

 its stomach and the forefeet or flippers are free again for another 

 similar motion. This action of Phoca is effected so continuously and 

 so rapidly that in attempting to head off a young ' ' nearhpah " from 

 the water at English Bay, I was obliged to leave a brisk walk and 

 take to a dogtrot to do it. The hind feet are not used when exerted 

 in this rajjid movement at all; they are dragged along in the wake of 

 the body, perfectly limp and motionless. But they do use those pos- 

 terior parts, however, when leisurely climbing up and over rocks 

 undisturbed, or playing one with another; still it is always a weak, 

 trembling terrestrial effort, and particularly impotent and clumsy. In 

 their swift swimming the hind feet of Plwcidce evidently do all the 

 work; the reverse is the characteristic of the Ofariidce. 



These remarks of mine, it should be borne in mind, apply directly 

 to Phoca vitulina, and I presume indirectly with equal force to all the 

 rest of its more important generic kindred, be they as large as Phoca 

 harhata or less. 



This hair seal is found around these islands at all seasons of the 

 year, but in very small numbers. I have never seen more than 25 or 

 30 at any one time, and I am told that its occidental distribution, 

 although everywhere found, above and below, from the Arctic to the 

 Tropics, and especially general over the North Pacific coast, nowhere 

 exhibits any great number at any one place; but we know that it and 

 its immediate kindred form a vast majority of the multitudinous seal 

 life peculiar to our North Atlantic shores, ice floes, and contiguous 

 waters. The scarcity of this species, and of all its generic allies, in 

 the waters of the Pacific is notable as compared with those of the cir- 

 cumpolar Atlantic, where these hair seals are the seals of commerce, 

 and are found in such immense numbers between Greenland and Lab- 

 rador and thence to the eastward at certain seasons ^ of every year, 



' March and April. 



