Hooded Seal; Whales Generally. 27 



The nearest breeding-station of the Grey Seal is the Farn 

 Islands off the Northumberland coast ;J but they occasionally 

 stray to the Wash and Norfolk sands. || 



Lastly, a solitary example of the so-called (3) BLADDKK- 

 XOSK, Crested or Hooded Seal (Cystophora cmstata), a true sub- 

 arctic straggler, is recorded as having been secured in the 

 Orwell, above Harwich, in 1847.* 



The Whale Tribe (Oetacea). There are two sorts, one with 

 teeth, the other provided with baleen-plates, or whalebone, in the 

 jaws. Specimens of both kinds betimes have been driven ashore 

 or incautiously entering estuary, river or creek, have got 

 stranded or been pursued and killed by fishermen or others. 

 To Cetaceans the estuary and its rivers seem a fatal trap. The 

 large whales, say between 20 to 60 feet in length, when follow- 

 ing flood currents and their fishy food, suddenly find themselves 

 on the ebb-tide among the sands and shoals, without a prospect 

 of return to sea. The stranding of Sperm Whales on the North 

 Kent coast at different times is quite remarkable, of which 

 more anon. 



Now and again a whale capture perchance leads to the 

 fishermen's receiving recompense ; though, generally speaking, 

 between time lost and other circumstances, the captors find it 

 not altogether a profitable venture. For example, if the whale 

 be of good size, a number of men and boats may be engaged 

 tackling the monster, or taking it to a place of safety ; then after 

 much time, labour and trouble expended, even in the best of 

 cases, the ultimate division of profit renders the share to each 

 individual meagre. Again, frequently the Lord of the Manor 

 steps in and asserts his privilege to the fishermen's detriment, 

 or the Crown officers claim it as a Royal fish. If of moderate 

 or small size, a temporary exhibition of the specimen may 

 eventually recoup time, &c., bestowed ; but the success of such 



t Selby. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., VI. (1841). || Southwell. Zool. (1882-3). 

 * Seals when in numbers are decidedly mortal enemies of fish, instance the New- 

 foundland Banks. In their annual four months' visits there it has been calculated 

 they destroy three to four million hundredweight of cod. Their paucity in our 

 Districts' waters render injury to the fisheries a trifling matter ; but if the Thames 

 and Medway are again to become Salmon rivers, as lately proposed, then a few Seals 

 about might thin the stock, for they are particularly fond of the Salmonoid tribe. 



