SEALS 



THE seas of Greenland and Barentz are inhabited 

 by several species of seals, some of which are 

 migratory, and are scattered everywhere over 

 the ice-fields, while others congregate in, and 

 rarely leave, particular localities. 



Besides the vitulina seal, which is found on 

 the northern coasts as far as Somme Bay, and 

 in large numbers in the bays of western 

 Spitzbergen, where it remains in the fjord 

 before the glacier fronts, I have, in the course 

 of my Arctic expeditions, hunted the phoca 

 barbata, and its cousin the b]ue seal, the hooded 

 seal or Cystophora cristaca, the Greenland 

 phoca, and finally the foetida seal. 



All these seals, except the last one mentioned, 

 sink instantly when shot while swimming. One 

 therefore pays them little attention when they 

 approach to examine the ship curiously, as they 

 often do. 



The best, and, in fact, the only way of 

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