628 PHOCA FCETIDA RiffGED SEAL. 



are not in their i^rime until the third year, and we never heard 

 them complain of the ofl'ensive smell, which their more fastidi- 

 ous brethren in Greenland are said to dislike so extremely."* 



Malmgren states that even the young, when lying on the ice, 

 are extremely difficult to kill, for they go immediately into the 

 water on the first view of the hunter, while, on the contrary, 

 he observes, the young of the Gray Seal {Ralichoerus grypus) 

 has such a terror of the water while it wears its woolly coat 

 that it scrambles out on to the ice as soon as it is thrown into 

 the water, t 



The habits of the Ringed Seal, as observed in European 

 waters, seem to agree with what has already been related re- 

 specting their life-history in Davis's Strait and Cumberland 

 Sound. Malmgren, for example, states that the females bring 

 forth their young on the western coast of Finland on the ice 

 near the edge of great openings between the 24th of February 

 and the 25th of March, or at the time given by Fabricius and 

 later writers for the same event on the coast of Greenland, and 

 in no respect does their mode of life appear to differ in the icy 

 seas about Spitzbergen from what has already been related. 



The Ringed Seal is of far less commercial value than the 

 Harp Seal, but in this respect may be considered as holding 

 the second rank among the northern Phocids. Brown states 

 that "it is chiefly looked upon and taken as a curiosity by the 

 whalers, who consider it of very little commercial importance 

 and call it 'Floe-rat.'" Von Heuglin, however, states that 

 many thousands are annually taken by the sealers for their 

 skins and fat, in the vicinity of Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen. 

 It is of the greatest importance, however, to the Esquimaux 

 and other northern tribes, by whom they are captured for food 

 and clothing. Mr. Brown informs us that it forms, during the 

 latter i^art of summer and autumn, "the principal article of 

 food in the Danish settlements, and on it the writer of these 

 notes and his companions dined many a time ; we even learned 

 to like it and to become quite epicurean connoisseurs in all the 

 qualities, titbits, and dishes of the well-beloved Neitsik ! The 

 skin," he continues, "forms the chief material of clothing in 

 North Greenland. All of the id noUoi dress inNeitsik breeches 

 and jumpers ; and we sojourners from a far country soon en- 



* Ross's 2d. Voy., App., p. xx. 

 t Arcli. fur Naturg., 1864, p. 83. 



