MIGRATIONS AND BREEDING STATIONS. 643 



and pass round to the southward of Newfoundland; some, 

 however, spend the winter in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, 

 where they bring forth their young on the ice in spring. But 

 the great mass continue onward along the eastern coast of New- 

 foundland as far as Baccalieu Island, at the entrance of Trinity 

 Bay, where they leave the shore for the Grand Banks, at which 

 they arrive about the end of December. Here they rest for a 

 month, and then turn again northward to seek the ice-floes for 

 breeding stations. Slowly onward they struggle against the 

 strong current that aided them so much in their southward 

 journey, till they reach the great ice-fields, stretching from the 

 Labrador shore far eastward, a broad continent of ice. By 

 the end of February the breeding-sites have been chosen, and 

 the young are born shortly after (generally between the 5th 

 and 10th of March). Many of the younger Seals (yearlings 

 and two-year-olds), however, still remain on the southern banks. 

 By the end of April the newly-born Seals are strong enough to 

 secure their own food, and in May the numberless multitude 

 resume their northward route, keeping far out at sea to avoid 

 the strong current that courses along the coast. In May they 

 begin to again arrive on the coast of Southern Greenland, and 

 later visit the more northern shores. 



The Seals that resort in such great numbers to the ice-floes 

 east and north of Jan Mayen in spring are believed to come 

 mainly from Greenland, but doubtless a large part really come 

 from the eastward and northward. Lindeman, speaking of 

 their dispersion after the breeding season, says : " By the end 

 of June they start on their homeward journey to the north and 

 east, the young following ; they pass from one outlying point 

 of ice to another, where they lie to rest. In a single instance 

 they were followed all the way to Spitzbergen, and were here 

 also observed to still pursue an easterly direction. Whither 

 they go and where they keep themselves till the next spring is 

 certainly a worthy subject of investigation."* 



As already stated in the general account of Seal-hunting 

 (antea, pp. 496 et seq.), the Harp Seals assemble early in spring 

 in countless numbers in the vicinity of u the dreary island of Jan 

 Mayen ", the ice floes a. little to the eastward and northward of 

 which form their great central rendezvous during the breeding 

 season, and consequently the scene of the grand annual Seal 

 slaughter in the Arctic seas. Their principal breeding-resort 



* Petermann's Geograph. Mittheil., Ergiinzungs Heft Nr. 26, 1869, p. -. 



