SEXUAL ORGANS AND COPULATION. 405 



more stagey skins were shipped. Two years after^ inquiries 

 were made by parties in London for stagey skins, or rather why 

 there were no more to be had in the market. It was ascer- 

 tained that parties there had been making it a special business to 

 manufacture stagey skins. The low price at which they were 

 sold in the raw state enabled them to bestow the extra labor 

 necessary to pluck them and realize a large profit thereby, the 

 skins after plucking being of prime value. This gives further 

 proof that the animals were not shedding their fur. When- 

 ever Seals are wounded before the shedding season the wound 

 heals very quickly and the scar is covered with a coat of fur 

 immediately after, but no overhair grows on the wound until 

 the shedding season arrives, when nature wholly repairs the in- 

 jury. I have had such animals killed in the shedding season and 

 found the new overhair showing in the fur of the wound just 

 as on the rest of the body. In tKe spring of 1873 a fine three- 

 year-old landed with a wound on its body as large as two 

 hands, apparently caused by the animal getting pinched in the 

 ice. The wound, though fresh, soon healed and became cov- 

 ered with fur. This Seal was several times driven to the kill- 

 ing-ground and allowed to go back, on account of the blemish 

 on its skin. In August, when taking Seals for food, this Seal 

 was killed and unmistakable evidences of the new overhair 

 covering the wound were found. 



" SEXUAL, ORGANS AND COPULATION. As before stated, the 

 male is born with the testes enclosed in the body. These descend 

 in the second year but do not become fully developed until the 

 fourth. In the fifth year the scrotum becomes distended and 

 the testes show like those of the dog. The vaginal orifice of 

 the female being within the anus there is but one external open- 

 ing ; hence the difficulty of distinguishing the sexes at birth. The 

 female has four teats, two on each side of the middle line of the 

 belly, equidistant from the fore and hind flippers. During 

 lactation they are half an inch in length, but do not protrude 

 beyond the overhair. The mode of copulation on land has 

 already been described. When there was a full supply of 

 breeding males copulation occurred mainly on the breeding- 

 grounds, the half-bulls participating to only a limited extent, 

 and was rarely seen to occur in the water. Since 1874, owing 

 to the decrease in the number of breeding males, a much 

 larger proportion of the females receive the males in the water, 

 so that on any still day after the 20th of July, by taking a canoe 



