704 HALICHCERUS GRYPUS GRAY SEAL. 



The same writer alludes as follows to the uses and supposed 

 medicinal qualities of the flesh of these Seals : 



u The natives [of the Island of Harris] salt the seals with 

 the ashes of burnt sea-ware, and say they are good food : the 

 vulgar eat them commonly in the spring-time, with a long 

 pointed stick instead of a fork, to prevent the strong smell 

 which their hands would otherwise have for several hours after. 

 The flesh and broth of fresh young seals is by experience known 

 to be pectoral; the meat is astringent, and used as an effectual 

 remedy against diarrhea and dysenteria: the liver of a seal 

 being dried and pulverised, and afterwards a little of it drunk 

 with milk, aquavits, or red wine, is also good against fluxes. 

 . . . The seal, though esteemed fit only for the vulgar, is also 

 eaten by persons of distinction, though under a different name, 

 to wit, ham : this I have been assured of by good hands, and 

 thus we see that the generality of men are as much led by 

 fancy as judgment in their palates, as well as in other things. 

 The popish vulgar, in the islands to the southward from this, 

 eat these seals in Lent instead of fish."* 



Edmonstone, in his account of the Zetland Isles (vol. ii, 1809, 

 p. 294), also refers at some length to this species under the 

 names Phoca barbata and "Haaf Fish," stating, among other 

 things, that the "young are brought forth in the months of 

 September, October, and November." 



The habits of the Gray Seal in the Gulf of Bothnia, where 

 it was formerly very abundant, appear to be very different from 

 what they are described to be at other localities, especially in 

 respect to the season of reproduction. Although I have met 

 no recent account of its habits as observed there, Lilljeborg 

 .and other Scandinavian writers quote Cneiff's account of the 

 Gray Seal of the Baltic as referring without question to Hali- 

 chcerus grypus. The Gray Seal, according to Gneiff, was so 

 numerous about the middle of the last century as to occur in 

 herds of several hundreds, and was regularly hunted for its fat 

 and skins.t He describes it as somewhat migratory, leaving 

 the Baltic at the approach of winter for the more northerly 



* Pinkerton's Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. iii, pp. 595, 596. 



tFor a full abstract of CneifF's account of the Bothnian Seal-fishery see 

 antea, pp. 530-534. As already stated (antea, p. 664), there is reason to doubt 

 whether this account does not relate to Eriynathus barbatus rather than to 

 Halichcerus grypus, in respect to the season of giving birth to the young and 

 breeding habits, it agreeing with the former and not with the latter. 



