M. Baer on An'mal Life In Nova Zeinbla. 101 



names from the Russians ; the ohi male is termed Luisan or 

 Lidsun, the female JJtjWga ; the young ones of a year old, 

 whose colours are not completely developed, Sjdrunok and 

 Sjdrka ; and the young ones, according to their various tints, 

 Pljdchanko, Chochlutschka, and Bjdka. But the names of the 

 young animals are not always strictly applied, for the same 

 denominations are given to the young of a third species of seal 

 Avhich occurs here, and of which the old ones receive the 

 name of Nerpa. This species, of which single individuals oc- 

 cur every where along the coast, is most likely the Fhoca his- 

 pida of Fabricius. A fourth species of seal belongs to these 

 seas, though it is not actually met with on the coast of Nova 

 Zembia ; but occurs on the Timanic coast and in the entrance 

 to the White Sea, though not abundantly. It is the Tetvjak, 

 is said to cover its face with a sort of a cap, and is therefore 

 very likely the Klappmuts of the Dutch, or Phoca cristata 

 Erxl., Cijstophora borealis Nilsson. 



Of the cetacea, this sea contains, more especially, a species 

 of whale belonging to the subdivision termed Fin-fish or Balae- 

 noptera, with very i?hort whiskers, and which I saw at Archangel. 

 They are seen but rarely in the sea round Nova Zembia, and 

 one hears nothing of any being stranded on the coast. Nearer 

 the north coast of T^apland, where they are stranded almost 

 every year in the Bay of Motowsk, they are so numerous, that T 

 am much surprised that earlier attempts have not been regularly 

 followed up, and new enterprizes carried on with perseverance 

 for the pursuit of this animal. It may be at the same time re- 

 mai'ked, that it is undoubtedly diflficidt to kill this animal. It is 

 extraordinary that the Greenland whale never strays to the 

 coasts of Nova Zembia. This is a strong reason for believing 

 that the whale-fishing carried on by the Northmen, in the ninth 

 century, near the North Cape, according to the testimony of 

 Onthcrc, must have been for this fin-fish. The narwhal 

 {Monodon nionoccros) is much rarer, and is only met with near 

 the ice. As to dolphins, besides the Delphimis leucas, there 

 is also the Delphinus area {Kusudtka), and a small species 

 termed by the Russians Morskaja sn-inja, regarding which I 

 have not been able to ascertain whether it is the Delphinus 

 delphis or Delphinus phoccvna. 



