590 PHOCA VITULINA HARBOR SEAL. 



the strong seal-nets they are able to cut themselves free, a feat 

 it is said no other Seal known in Newfoundland will do. 



This species is known to the inhabitants of Newfoundland as 

 the " Native Seal," in consequence of its being the only species 

 found there the whole year. The young are there also called 

 "Eangers," and when two or three years old, at which age they 

 are believed to bring forth their first young, receive the name 

 of "Dotards." Here, as well as in Greenland, the skins of this 

 species are more valued than those of any other species, owing 

 to their beautifully variegated markings, and are especially val- 

 ued for covering trunks and the manufactures of coats, caps, 

 and gloves.* Mr. Brown informs us that the natives of the 

 eastern coast of Greenland prize them highly " as material for 

 the women's breeches," and adds "that no more acceptable 

 present can be given to a Greenland damsel than a skin of 

 the 'Kassigiak,' as this species is there called." The Green- 

 landers also consider its flesh as "the most palatable of all 

 ' seal-beef '".t 



According to Mr. Eeeks, the period of gestation is about nine 

 months, the union of the sexes occurring, according to the testi- 

 mony of the Newfoundlanders, in September. X Only rarely does 

 the female give birth to more than a single young. This agrees 

 with what is stated by Bell and other English authors respect- 

 ing its season of procreation. 



Eespecting its general history, I find the following from the 

 pen of Mr. John Cordeaux, who, in writing of this species, as 

 observed by him in British waters, says : " The Seal {Phoca vitu- 

 Una) is not uncommon on that part of the Lincolnshire coast ad- 

 joining the Wash. This immense estuary, lying between Lin- 

 colnshire and Norfolk, is in great part occupied with large and 

 dangerous sand-banks, intersected by deep but narrow chan- 

 nels. At ebb the sands are uncovered ; and at these times, on 

 hot days, numbers of Seals may be found basking and sunning 

 themselves on the hot sands, or rolling and wallowing in the 

 shallow water along the bank. Sometimes a herd of fifteen or 

 twenty of these interesting creatures will collect on some favorite 

 sand-spit ; their chief haunts are the Long-sand, near the centre 

 of the Wash; the Knock, along the Lincoln coast; and the 

 Dog's-head sand, near the entrance to Boston Deeps. In the 



Carroll, Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland, 1873, pp. 10, 11. 



tProc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1868, pp. 413, 413. 



} Eeeks (Henry), Zoologist, 2d ser., vol. vi, 1871, p. 2541. 



