76 VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 



Our sailors esteemed the entrails of a young one 

 which they dressed, as equal to those of a hog. A 

 seal will yield about twelve or fourteen gallons of 

 good oil ; their skins are very valuable, serving for 

 covers to trunks, vests, &c. and are now used to a 

 vcvy considerable extent in the manufactureof shoes. 

 The Greenlanders, who depend almost entirely for 

 subsistence on this animal, make their boots, and 

 other articles of dress, as well as the inside of their 

 huts, of its skim 



The seal is a gregarious and polygamous ani- 

 mal. It is never met with at a great distance 

 from land, but frequents the bays and seas adja- 

 cent to the shore. It feeds promiscuously on most 

 sorts of small fish, but chiefly on the spawn of the 

 salmon. 



Fabricius differs from both BufFon and Pennant 

 in asserting, that the seal brings forth but one at a 

 time, while they maintain that it brings forth two.* 

 At the time of parturition, it eomes on shore, and 

 suckles its young there for about six weeks before it 

 takes them to the water, where it instructs them in 

 swimming. Though naturally timid, the female 

 defends her young with great boldness and spirit ; 

 on other occasions they generally place their safety 



* Perhaps Pliny has hit the truth, « Parit nunquam geminis 

 pteres." Nat. Hist. lib. 9. § 13. 



