672 ERIGNATHUS BARBATUS BEARDED SEAL. 



blubber, and by the middle of July have nothing but i white- 

 horse ? , a tough, white, somewhat cartilaginous substance, in 

 place of blubber. At this season they sink when shot. . . . 

 The young are born upon pieces of floating ice, without any 

 covering of snow. The season of procreation is during the fore 

 part of May. After the young have shed their first woolly 

 coat (which they do in a few days), they have a very beautiful 

 steel-blue hair, but generally so clouded over with irregularly 

 dispersed patches of white that its beauty is spoiled. . . . 



"The Ogjook is of great value to the Eskimo, who prize the 

 skins very highly. All their harnesses, sealing lines, etc., are 

 made from the raw skins ; besides this, they make the soles of 

 their boots, and sometimes other portions of their dress, from 

 the skin. In such localities as the whalemen do not visit, and 

 the natives are obliged to construct skin boats, this seal is in 

 great demand. It takes fifteen skins for an ominak or skin 

 boat, and these skins require renewing very often. The skin 

 of the back and belly dries unevenly, so the Eskimo skin the 

 animal along both sides and dry the skin of the upper and 

 lower parts separately. 



"It is a prevalent belief among the whalemen that the livers 

 of Seals, and more especially those of this species, are poison- 

 ous; but I am inclined to rate this as imaginative; we ate the 

 livers of all the species we procured without any bad effects." * 



The Bearded Seal appears to be a well-known inhabitant of 

 the coast of Norway and of the Arctic islands north of Europe. 

 Collett gives it as occurring in comparatively small numbers 

 along the Norwegian coast, from the fjords of Finmark south- 

 ward to latitude 62, throughout which range it appears to be 

 resident the whole year. They make short journeys to the fish- 

 ing-grounds, a few miles off the coast, but for the most part 

 are found constantly at nearly the same localities. They have, 

 however, their favorite breeding resorts, at which they assem- 

 ble during the breeding season from a considerable area, dis- 

 persing again when the breeding time is over. One of these 

 breeding-places, and believed to be the most southern one on 

 the Norwegian coast, is at the northwesternmost of the islets 

 of the Froyen group, off Trondhjem Fjord, to which it is sup- 

 posed that nearly all of the individuals found south of latitude 

 64 resort in the breeding season. Mr. Collett states that the 



* Copied from Mr. Kumlien's MS. notes, with slight verbal changes ; since 

 published in Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. , No. 15, pp. 61-63. 



