278 CRUISE of THE NEPTUNE 
HUDSON BAY. 
1889-one ship. 
1890- 
1891-one ship, 4 whales, 4,400 lbs. bone. 
1892-one Ship, 2  
1893-two ships, 8 
18,500 One ship, 8 " 4,500 " 
1895-three 
1896--two ships, 4 
1897-three ships, 19 
" 
" 
20, 
20, 
10,300 
" 
" 
1898 
1899-one ship, 6 whales, 6,000 lbs. bone. 
1900-One ship, 8 " 7,500 
1901-one ship. Burnt. 
1902- 
1903-two ships, 2 whales, 1,800 lbs. bone. 
1904-one ship, 1  
The information to 1866 has been taken from the narrative of C. F. hall's second 
Arctic expedition. That from 1889 to 1904 has been furnished by Captain George 
Comer, American Whaler Era. 
Eight American whaling ships have, to the knowledge of Captain Comer, been 
lost in Hudson Bay. 
SEALS. 
There exists at present considerable confusion in the number 
of species and the classification of the northern seals. A scien- 
tific argument on classification is beyond the province of this 
report, and it need only be mentioned that, after careful 
inquiry from the Eskimos of Baffin island and Hudson bay, 
there is no doubt that, including the walrus, there are but six 
species of seals in the northern seas of eastern America, and 
that the other species named are simply due to varieties of age, 
size and colour. 
The present account is confined to the distribution, habits 
and uses of these animals. 
callocephalus vitulinus, linn.-the Harbour seal, Fresh- 
water seal, or Ranger (Kassigiak, Eskimo), is common but not 
plentiful on all the coasts. It is found usually about the mouths 
of rivers, and in bays and fiords. It is also found in some of the 
larger lakes of Labrador and baffin island. These lakes are often 
far inland and high above the present level of the sea, and 
there is no doubt that in a number of them the seals reside 
permanently. The young, unlike those of the other seals, are 
produced in July on the rocks about the banks of rivers. 
