402 MIGllATORY HABITS. 



it be calm and the wind favourable, may be beard, it is 

 said, at the distance of seven (English) miles. The fearful 

 bowlings of wolves that have been wandering in search 

 of prey, but who, owing to the disruption of the ice, now 

 find themselves on an isolated floe, driven hither and 

 thither by the winds and waves, not uufrequently add 

 to the horrid concert. 



It is said that in the spring the Grey Seal does not 

 delay its departure from the more northern parts of the 

 gulf, even if the ice be not altogether broken up, but 

 traverses its surface until it meets with open water, and 

 that, too, in a perfectly straight line, neither islands nor 

 headlands causing it to deviate in the slightest degree from 

 its track. When such a seal, called a Gangare, or Wan- 

 derer, is met with by the hunter, as not uufrequently 

 happens, it usually pays the forfeit of its life. We read, 

 for instance, in a Swedish newspaper, under date of the 

 8rd May, 1858, that "two pilots, who had agreed to cele- 

 brate the Easter holidays together, set off homewards on the 

 ice. Before starting, they had provided themselves with 

 a sufficiency of drinkables and eatables for the journey, 

 and amongst the rest with a kalf-bog, or shoulder of veal, 

 which one of them carried in his hand. Arrived at a 

 neck of land jutting out into the gulf, which it was ne- 

 cessary for them to cross, they observed a large Seal slowly 

 making its way on the ice, and directly against the wind — 

 as is customary with these animals — which they quickly 

 despatched with the ' kalf-bog.' The poor creature was both 

 wearied and frozen, and it was believed had thus progressed 

 on the ice for very many miles, as no open water could be 

 observed by the men for a very long distance." 



That Seals should thus make extended journeys on 

 the ice one can partly understand, because the comparative 

 smoothness of its surface must necessarily render the task 

 somewhat easy; but that they should wander far and wide 



