AMPHIBIOUS CARNIVORA. 91 



number of Proboscis Seals and Fur Seals which 

 he had found on the shores of that island. This 

 induced several enterprising merchants to fit out 

 vessels to take them, the former for their oil, the 

 latter for their skins. Captain Weddell states that 

 ne had been credibly informed, that during a period 

 of about fifty years not less than 20>000 tons of oil 

 were procured annually from this spot alone for tlie 

 London market ; a quantity which, at a moderate 

 price, would yield about L.I, 000,000 a year. 



The skins, as we have seen, are very much used 

 in their raw state as articles of apparel by the na- 

 tives of the Polar Zones. When tanned, they use 

 them extensively in making shoes ; and the Esqui- 

 maux have a process by which they render them 

 waterproof; so that, according to Scoresby, the 

 jackets and trousers made of them by these people 

 are in great request among the whale-fishers, for 

 preserving them from oil and wet. But the skins 

 are not only used in this raw and tanned state as 

 leather; on account of their silky and downy cover- 

 ing, they constitute still more important articles con- 

 nected with the fur trade. Thus considered, Seals' 

 skins are evidently of two kinds, which may be dis- 

 tinguished as teV-skins and/wr-skins. The former 

 are used for clothing and ornament by the Russians, 

 Chinese, and other nations, and the latter yield 

 a fur which, we believe, exceeds in value all others 

 which have been brought into the market. Many 

 Seals supply nothing but hair, whilst others, in dif- 

 ferent proportions, produce both the hair, and un- 



