WHALING 279 



The skins are prized by the natives owing to their fur-like 

 character and beauty of colour. They are dressed with the hair 

 on, and are chiefly used for women's garments, fancy bags and 

 for the boot-legs of dandies. 



The flesh and blubber, especially of the older and larger 

 freshwater seals, have a disagreeable odour and taste, and conse- 

 quently are not so highly prized by the natives as are those of 

 the following species. 



Pagomys foetidus, Fab. The Ringed seal, or Jar (Nietshik, 

 Eskimo), is the common small seal of all the coasts. 



The variations in size, markings and colour, due to age, have 

 led to this seal being classed under several species. 



Its flesh is the chief article of diet of the natives the year 

 round, while its skin when dressed with the hair is used for 

 clothing, tentings and bags ; when dressed by removing the hair, 

 it is used as covering for the kyak and for boot-legs. The 

 blubber, burned in stone lamps, is the chief source of artificial 

 heat. 



The young are born in March in snow-houses scraped out by 

 the female from a snow-bank, close to an air-hole -on the ice. 

 When born they have a glistening white coat of soft hair. 



Pagophilus groenlandicus, Mull. The Harp seal, Saddle- 

 back, Bedlamiers, (Kirolik, Eskimo,) supplies fully two-thirds 

 of the seals taken annually off the coasts of Newfoundland in 

 the spring, when the females give birth to their young on the 

 floating ice of the Arctic pack. The Harp seal is more or less 

 common on the northern coasts, and southward along the 

 Atlantic coast of Labrador, at all seasons. In Hudson strait 

 they are rare in summer, but are not uncommon after the shore- 

 ice forms in the autumn, and before it leaves in the early 

 summer. These seals commonly travel in bands, and are known 

 by their habit of frequently leaping from the water. They are 



