212 CARNIVORA PINNIPEDIA. 



alert, to detect the slightest sign of danger. Then care- 

 fully choosing a place where a shelf of rock, raised but 

 little above the sea, descends vertically several feet be- 

 neath, so it will be possible for them to plunge head first 

 into the water, and disappear upon the first alarming 

 sound, they will emerge. Upon gaining the surface of 

 the rock, they at once turn completely around, so they 

 can lie with the head seaward, ready to dive on the in- 

 stant, should occasion require. 



The coat of the Grey Seal is yellowish in color, becom- 

 ing lighter on the under parts, and is marked with dusky, 

 ill-defined spots. The skins are seldom met with in com- 

 merce, and the few that are marketed are bought exclu- 

 sively by tanners. 



The Ringed Seal, or floe-rat, is the smallest representa- 

 tive of the Phocidae, averaging about three feet in length. 

 It is sometimes called the Fetid Seal, because of the odor 

 it exudes. While they are found to some extent in the 

 North Atlantic and the North Pacific Oceans, the true 

 home of the Ringed Seals is in the icy Arctic Seas, where 

 their favorite resorts are sheltered bays and fjords, in 

 which they will remain as long as they are filled with solid 

 ice, but when the ice breaks up, they drift out to sea upon 

 the floes, and there the young are born in April and May. 



This species is not migratory, but very abundant, and 

 of special local value to the Eskimos, who take large 

 quantities of them through holes which they cut in the 

 ice. The skins that are exported are used exclusively for 

 leather. 



The Ringed Seal can be distinguished from all others, 

 by the peculiar markings to which it owes its name, its 

 smaller body, slenderer form, longer limbs and tail, nar- 

 rower head and more pointed nose. It is one of the spe- 

 cies of True Seals that make circular blow holes in the 

 ice, through which they ascend and descend at pleasure. 

 The covering of the body is a dense, coarse hair, almost 

 like wool, and the color of the adult, is blackish grey 

 above, with oval rings, and whitish on the under parts. 



The Baikal Seal, and the Caspian Seal, which are re- 

 spectively confined to the seas which bear their names, 

 although they are much larger, are closely allied to the 



