216 Frits Johansen. 



air; then the animals disappeared in the water to rise again in the 

 same way. After ^U—^h an hour they remained up, but only to 

 swim to another clear space and continue their play. The one some- 

 times left its (presumable) mate and swam a little round about in 

 the neigbourhood, but quickly returned to the other, which meantime 

 had remained at the same spot floating on the surface, while making 

 peculiar, slow and rhythmic movements. It ducked its head down 

 in the water and up again, blowing and moaning all the time, then 

 bent its back up in an arch, sank again and pushed up its head 

 and so on, just as if it were recovering its balance after powerful 

 efforts. Occasionally they swam far out and moved about where 

 the ice lay denser, but soon returned to the more ice-free water 

 along the land. Only once and only for a moment did they go up 

 on the beach. I watched them continuously for a couple of hours; 

 then they disappeared and at the same time I saw a quantity of 

 drift ice come down with the current and fill up the previously ice- 

 free water. Later in the day however I saw one of them among 

 the drifting ice some distance from the land. It was a day of great 

 sunshine, but with relatively low air temperature." 



The probable explanation of the phenomenen can only be that 

 they were pairing; neither of the animals was shot, however, so that 

 their sex could not be determined with certainty. 



Bearded Seal {Phoca barbata, Fabr.) 



This seal which seems to occur in much fewer numbers at 

 North-East Greenland than the others, is not to such a high degree 

 bound to the shallow waters as the walrus. Thus, it has been 

 observed on July 30»^ 1908 at ca. 75^2° N. L., ca. 8° W. L. in the 

 scattered, large ice far from land, and 4 days earlier (77° 20' N. L., 

 14°17' W. L.) two large animals lay on the edge of a large ice-field, 

 where there was much open water (depth ca. 325 m.); lastly, a 

 large P. barbata lay on an ice-floe at ca. 76° N. L., ca. 15° W. L. 

 (^*^/7 08). Three animals were seen in the clear spaces among the 

 ice in the coastal water east of Store Koldewey (ca. 76° 10' N. L., 

 ca. 17° W. L., ^^/8 08; the depth here was ca. 220 m.); and singly and 

 two together it was occasionally observed in the fjords about 

 Danmarks Havn throughout the whole year (except during quite 

 the dark period), mostly at their holes in the fjord ice and on pieces 

 of drift ice, or at the larger or smaller openings in the thin ice in 

 the autumn. It does not seem to go in on too shallow water (pro- 

 bably because its principal food is fish), except at the mouths of 

 large rivers which contain quantities of salmon (Hvalrosodden). 



