GREAT SEAL. 147 



even should some hesitation remain as to their cor- 

 rect classification. 



This species, according to Fabricius, from whose 

 account we borrow, and whose statements are strik- 

 ingly substantiated by the specimen above referred to, 

 is often met with ten feet long, and the young of the 

 second year are six and a half feet in length. Its 

 head is long, and its forehead peculiarly prominent ; 

 the muzzle is very large, and the lips loose ; the hairs 

 of its whiskers are long, numerous, horny, flexible, 

 smooth, white, and curled at the point : the external 

 opening of the ear is larger than in most other spe- 

 cies, but without any auricle ; the eyes are large, and 

 the pupil round and black, the iris brown. The 

 fore-paw is more free than in the Common Seal ; 

 the shape also is peculiar, approximating somewhat 

 to that of the human hand, having the middle finger 

 the longest, and the thumb nearly as short as the 

 little finger. The body is long and robust, and the 

 back somewhat elevated ; the skin is thick. The 

 hide of the young is supplied with soft hairs, some- 

 what woolly underneath, which are deciduous, and 

 but thinly scattered over the adult. The colour 

 varies according to the age; the young have a 

 dusky colour, and are white underneath ; the old 

 acquire a deep dark colour. Crantz says that the 

 hair is black upon this the largest species of the 

 Greenland Seals, frequently exceeding nine feet. 

 Baron Cuvier says it is grey, sometimes brown 

 above, with a longitudinal streak of black forming 



