CHAPTER IV 

 THE GREAT GREY SEAL 



IT is always pleasing to find that intelligent care can 

 be brought to bear on the preservation of the rare 

 and interesting animals which still inhabit parts of these 

 British Islands, though it is not often that such care is 

 actually exercised. Mr. Lyell (a nephew of the great 

 geologist Sir Charles Lyell) in April 1 9 14 introduced 

 a Bill into the House of Commons which is called the 

 Grey Seals (Protection) Bill. It came on for considera- 

 tion before the Standing Committee, was ordered to be 

 reported to the House without amendment, and has 

 now passed into law. 



The Great Grey Seal is a much bigger animal than 

 the Common Seal, the two species being the only seals 

 which can be properly called " British " at the present 

 day, though occasionally the Harp Seal, or Greenland 

 Seal, and the Bladder-nosed Seal are seen in British 

 waters, and may emerge from those waters on to rocky 

 shores or lonely sandbanks. The Great Grey Seal is 

 called " Halichcerus grypus " by zoologists, whilst the 

 Common Seal is known as " Phoca vitulina." The male 

 of the former species grows to be as much as 10 feet 

 in length, whilst that of the Common Seal rarely attains 

 5 feet. Both these seals breed on the British coast. The 

 Common Seal frequents the north circumpolar region, 



