ROUGH OR BRISTLED SEAL. 169 



when the Greenlanders make garments of this skin, 

 they usually turn the hairy side inwards. 



This species, according to Fabricius, scarcely 

 ever frequents the high seas, but delights in retired 

 bays, and in the neighbourhood of the ice of the 

 coasts, from which, especially when old, it very 

 unwillingly departs. Its food is all kinds of smaller 

 fish, such as haddock, but especially lobsters and 

 their congeners. The period of gestation is eight 

 months, and the young are brought forth in Feb- 

 ruary on the fixed ice, its proper haunt. Here it 

 has a hole, not so much for breathing as for fishing, 

 near which it remains usually solitary, rarely in 

 pairs. It is the most incautious of Seals, both in 

 the water and the ice ; whilst asleep on the wave, 

 it is sometimes pounced upon by the eagle and 

 borne to shore. 



According to Giesecke,* many thousands of this 

 species are killed every year on the West coast of 

 Greenland, in lat. 72. Though they emit a disagree- 

 able smell, yet he states they are notwithstanding 

 eaten with great avidity by the Northern Green- 

 landers. 



Their most valuable product is their oil ; but 

 many thousands of their skins are also regularly 

 imported into these countries, where they are used 

 in the manufacture of trunks, and for other domes- 

 tic purposes. 



* Article Greenland in Edin. Encyclop. 



