424 FAMILY PHOCID^. 



Cawl" is cited under Phoca leonina, thereby incepting the con- 

 fusion of the Crested Seal of the Arctic Seas with the Sea-Ele- 

 phant of the Southern Hemisphere which prevailed more or less 

 generally for the next quarter of a century. Phoca vituUna was 

 thus the only northern Phocid here distinctively recognized. 



A second notice of Seals on the basis of Steller's observations, 

 and one that has figured prominently in the history of the sub- 

 ject, is contained in Kraschineuikow's "History of Kamt- 

 schatka", published in 1764,* a work avowedly based largely 

 on Steller's MSS. Grieve's translation of the passage relating 

 to the Seals is as follows : " There are reconed to be four sorts 

 of this animal ; the very largest of which is catched from 50 to 

 64 of north latitude. This sort differs from the others in its 

 bulk, which exceeds that of a large ox. The second species is 

 about the size of a yearling bullock. Their skin is of different 

 colours, something like the skin of a tyger, having several spots 

 of equal largeness on the back, with a white and yellowish belly. 

 Their young ones are as white as snow. The third is yet less 

 than the former. Its skin is yellowish, with large cherry-col- 

 oured circles, which take up near the half of its surface. The 

 fourth kind is seen in the large lakes of BaiJcaal and Oronne. Its 

 size is like those that are found near Archangel ; and their colour 

 is whitish." These indications, though so vague, have served, 

 either in part or solely, as the basis of several of the species of 

 the later systematic writers, they being referred to numerically 

 as the " First sort of Seal", the " Fourth sort of Seal", etc. 



The first really imi^ortant account of the Seals of the North- 

 ern Seas is that given by Cranz in 1765, in his "Historie von 

 Gronland," in which he enumerates and briefly characterizes 

 all of the five species of Seals hunted or commonly met with in 

 Greenland. Although his descrijDtions are in most cases meagre, 

 and relate more to the habits of the species and to their 

 useful products than to their external characters, his species 

 are, from one circumstance or another, so easily recognized 

 that there has never been much uncertainty in regard to them. 



*I cite Grieve's (English) translation (1 vol., 4to) from tlie original Rus- 

 sian, published in 1764, wherein the matter relating to the Seals appears at 

 page 116. There is also a French translation (2 vols. 12mo) published in 

 1767, which is often quoted by French authors. The work quoted by Ger- 

 man writers as Steller's " Beschreibung von den Lande Kamtschatka" 

 (1 vol. 8vo, 1774 which I have not been able to see), seems to be, so far as 

 the matter relating to the Seals is concerned, merely a German version of 

 the same work. 



