HABITS, PRODUCTS, AND HUNTING. 671 



are "square at the top [tip?], thus differing from all [other] 

 species of Seal taken on the coast of Newfoundland." They 

 are very quiet and very fond of their young of which they have 

 never more than one at a time. If seen on the ice they are 

 sure to be killed. The skin and fat of a male Square Flipper, 

 when prime, will weigh " from 7 to 10 cwt.". When in full flesh 

 his weight varies " from 13 to 15 cwt "; the skin and fat of the 

 female when prime, weighs " from 4 to 5 cwt. " ; the skin and fat 

 of a young square flipper, when sixteen days old, will weigh 

 from 160 to 170 pounds. "The skin of the male and female 

 square flipper is of a cream color, the female has four teats (no 

 other seal known in Newfoundland has more than two). All 

 seals [sic] teats protrude about one inch outside the skin whilst 

 the young is sucking, after which they are drawn in, so as to 

 prevent injury whilst the old seal is crawling on ice or rocks. 

 The oil rendered out of square flippers [sic] fat, old and young, 

 when prime, is considered as pure as the best young Harp oil. 

 Length of an old square flipper, from head to tail, 11 to 12 feet."* 



Mr. Kumlien gives the following quite full account of its 

 habits, as observed by him in Cumberland Gulf: 



" The Ogjook, as this Seal is termed by the Cumberland Es- 

 kimo, delights in basking upon pieces of floating ice, and gen- 

 erally keeps well out at sea. I have never seen any numbers 

 together, but almost always singly. The old males do not seem 

 to agree well, and often have severe battles on the ice-floes 

 when they meet. They use the fore flippers, instead of the teeth, 

 in fighting. . . . 



"This seal has the habit of turning a summersault when about 

 to dive, especially when fired at; this peculiarity, which is 

 not shared by any other species that I have seen, is a charac- 

 teristic by which it may be distinguished at a considerable 

 distance. During May and June they crawl out upon an ice- 

 floe to bask and sleep; at such times they are easily approached 

 by the Eskimo in their kyacks and killed. . . . They dive 

 to great depths after their food, which is almost entirely Crus- 

 tacea and mollusks, including clams of considerable size. . . . 

 In July, during the moulting time, their stomachs contained 

 nothing but stones, some of them nearly of a quarter-pound 

 weight. They seem to eat nothing during the entire time of 

 shedding probably six weeks. Certain it is they lose all their 



* The Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland, together with a con- 

 densed History of the Island, 1873, pp. 12, 13. 



