CRESTED SEAL. 203 



statement is repeated by Mr Scoresby ; who adds, 

 " It often returns the attacks of its assailants, and, 

 being defended by its hood from the stunning effect 

 of a blow upon the nose, sometimes inflicts severe 

 wounds on the person by whom he is attacked ;"* 

 a characteristic this which we have heard feelingly 

 descanted upon by some who have been engaged in 

 its capture in the Greenland seas, 



In an economic point of view, we believe that 

 this is one of the species which is most extensively 

 made an object of pursuit, both in the Greenland 

 seas and in Davis' Straits; and that, together with 

 the Rough Seal, it is brought in by much the great- 

 est numbers to this country. The natives of the 

 regions it habitually frequents greatly esteem it. 

 The skins of the young are converted into the 

 most elegant dresses for the women, and are there- 

 fore highly valued ; their great boats are covered 

 with the skins of the aged, as also their houses ; the 

 teeth are used to head their hunting spears, and the 

 stomachs are converted into fishing buoys. 



We conclude this account of the Cristata in the 

 words of M. de Blainville : " We cannot readily 

 conceive how any one could confound the project- 

 ing vesicular tubercle of which Fabricius speaks, with 

 that modification of skin into which an animal can 

 bury its head as in a monk's hood, and which we 

 should naturally suppose would be found on the 

 back of the head." 



Arctic Regions, vol. i. p. 511. 



