696 HALICHffiRUS GRYPUS GRAY SEAL. 



loug known to inhabit all the seas that border Scandinavia, in 

 the East Sea as well as in the Sonud, in the Cattegat, and in 

 the North Sea ; the same statement being also made by Blasius 

 and other later anthorities. Collett gives it as found spar- 

 ingly along the whole coast of Norway, from latitude 58 to 

 70. It is not mentioned by von Heuglin as an inhabitant of 

 Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen, and Nova Zembla, while Malmgren 

 distinctly states that it does not reach Spitzbergen. He says 

 there is some reason to believe it occurs in small numbers on 

 the coast of Finmark, where it was observed by Lilljeborg (at 

 Tromso) in 1848. 



Mr. Ball and others are authority for its common occurrence 

 on the southern coast of Ireland, and it has for a long time 

 been known as an inhabitant of the Orkneys, the northern coast 

 of Scotland, the Hebrides, and the Farn Islands. Gray states- 

 that it has been found in various parts of the Irish Sea and St. 

 George's Channel ; that he has heard of it in tbe Isle of Man, 

 and believes that it occurs as far south as Laud's End and the 

 Scilly Isles.* He also states that there is little doubt of its^ 

 presence on the north coast of Cornwall, and that he had been 

 informed tbat many Seals of very large size haunt the caverns^ 

 on the coast of Plymouth.t Bell | refers to its capture in the 

 Isle of Wight, and says living specimens have been received 

 by the Zoological Society from the coast of Wales. 



To summarize the foregoing, it may be stated that the Gray 

 Seal ranges from Nova Scotia and the British Islands north- 

 ward to Greenland and Finmark, but is absent from the islands^ 

 of the Arctic Ocean. 



General History and Nomenclature. The earliest 

 notice of the Gray Seal that requires attention in the jjresent 

 connection, if not the earliest that can be with certainty identi- 

 fied, was given by Cneiff in his account of the Seal fishery of the 

 Gulf of Bothnia, published about the middle of the last century. 

 On this account is based "Der graue Seehund" of Schreber. 



*Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th ser., vol. ix, 1872, p. 322. 



tibid., vol. xiv, 1874, p. 96. 



t Hist. Brit. Qu<id., 1874, p. 265. 



Bericht vom Seekiilberfange iu Ostbothnien. Vom Provincialschaf&ier^ 

 Herrn. Johann David Kieiff eingegeben. < Der Konigl. Schwedisclien Aka- 

 demie der Wissenchaften, Abbaudlungen, etc., auf das Jalir 1757. Atrs dem 

 Schwedischen iibersetzt, von Abraham Gotthelf Kaftner, Band xix, 1759, 

 pp. 171-186. 



