624 PHOCA FCETIDA RINGED SEAL. 



"I have never known of an instance where they have at- 

 tempted to defend their offspring from man. I once saw a 

 raven trying to kill a young Seal, while the mother was making 

 frantic but very awkward attempts to catch the bird in her 

 mouth. 



" When the young first assume the coat of the adults (about 

 the time the ice begins to loosen) they seem possessed of a vast 

 amount of curiosity, and while swimming near the land, as 

 they almost always do, can be lured within gunshot by whist- 

 ling or singing. They would often play about the schooner, 

 diving underneath and coming up on the opposite side, appar- 

 ently enjoying it hugely. They delight to swim among the 

 pieces of floating ice in the quiet bays. The young and year- 

 lings of this species are often found together in small bands. 



" The adult females will average four feet and a half to the 

 end of the flippers. Such specimens are probably from four to 

 seven years old. The males are a little larger. There is great 

 variation in the skulls, but the sexes can readily be distinguished 

 by the skull alone, the males having a longer and narrower 

 head, with the ridges more prominent. 



"It is only the adult males (called i Tigak J = Stinker, by the 

 Eskimo) that emit the horribly disagreeable, all-permeating r 

 ever-penetrating odor that has suggested its specific name. 

 It is so strong that one can smell an Eskimo some distance 

 when he has been partaking of the flesh ; they say it is more 

 nourishing than the flesh of the females, and that a person can 

 endure great fatigue after eating it. If one of these Tigak 

 comes in contact with any other Seal meat it will become so 

 tainted as to be repulsive to an educated palate; even the 

 atluk of the Tigak can be detected by its odor. [*] 



"The food of the adults consists largely of different species 

 of crustaceans, and during winter especially they subsist to a 



[* Respecting the foetid odor emitted by this species, Dr. Rink observes 

 as follows : 



" It derives its scientific name from the nauseous smell peculiar to certain 

 older individuals, especially those captured in the interior ice-fjords, which 

 are also on an average perhaps twice as large as those generally occurring 

 off the outer shores. When brought into a hut and cut up on its floor, such 

 a seal emits a smell resembling something between that of assafcetida and 

 onions, almost insupportable to strangers. This peculiarity is not notice- 

 able in the younger specimens or those of a smaller size, such as are gen- 

 erally caught, and at all events the smell does not detract from the utility 

 of the flesh over the whole of Greenland." Danish Greenland, its People 

 and its Products, p. 123.] 



