646 PHOCA GRCENLANDICA HARP SEAL. 



mnay be, such wind will be sure to break up the ice. It is well 

 understood, he adds, that the "whereabouts" of the young 

 Seals depends "on wind and tide". 



Mr. Carroll ascribes great sagacity to the Seals in discerning 

 the character of the weather when they are in danger of being 

 "embayed". "They are sure to swarm out," he says, "at least 

 two and sometimes three days before the wind blows in on the 

 land ; they also know when a lake of water is in the sheet or 

 drift some hundred miles more or less from where they are hy 

 the reflection of ihe light through the ice [\\. . . . When Seals 

 get embayed and are kept there some number of days and can- 

 not get into the water owing to the ice being jammed, they 

 begin to travel out in a direct line for the water. Supposing 

 the water to be fifty miles from them, they know well by scent 

 where it is, for you will see them stretch out their necks and 

 sniff; should the ice part in any direction from them they will 

 at once turn round and avail themselves of it. Much depends 

 upon the character of the ice they have to travel on as to their 

 rate of speed ; they travel principally by night. I have killed 

 them with the hair and skin worn off the fore flippers and 

 bleeding." The same writer states that in cool nights Seals 

 will travel at an average rate of one mile per hour. Their 

 speed depends much, however, upon the character of the ice, 

 on level ice an old Seal being able to outstrip a smart runner 

 in a distance of sixty yards. They move laboriously, by lifting 

 themselves off the ice on their fore flipiiers and drawing up the 

 hind part of the body, resulting in a "sidelong loping gallop." 

 In travelling they sometimes become overheated, in which case 

 the hair becomes loosened and the skin worthless.* 



The young Seals are said not to voluntarily enter the water 

 until at least twelve days old, and that they require four or 

 five days' practice before they acquire sufficient strength and 

 proficiency in swimming to enable them to take care of them- 

 selves. After they take to the water they congregate by them- 

 selves, and when they mount the ice assemble in quite compact 

 herds. 



Professor Jukes refers to a young one that was taken alive 

 on board his ship as forming a verj' gentle and interesting pet. 

 "HelayA^ery quiet on deck, opening and closing his curious 

 nostrils, . . . and occasionally lifting his fine dark lustrous 

 eyes as if with wonder at the strange scenes around him." His 



* The Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland, 1873, pp. 24, 25. 



