164 WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



season. They do not stay in the north ; they 

 do not breed there, either on the ice or among 

 the secluded rocks, for we see them return from 

 the south, and not from the north ; therefore 

 they must either find a way through some narrow 

 passage or sound, such as a certain channel 

 may prove to be in Disko Bay, (69° north 

 latitude,) or that in Thomas Smith's Sound, 

 (78°,) or else they must get round Greenland, 

 through some supposed open sea further north 

 under the pole, and so arrive at the east side, 

 and then pass between Iceland and eastern 

 Greenland and round by Statenhook." Crantz 

 wrote from observation, without pretending to 

 be a professor of zoology ; and to simple narra- 

 tives, written without bias or predilection for 

 any favourite theory we are constrained to pay 

 just deference. He says that the harp seal, or 

 attarsoak, is only, if we understand him rightly, 

 partially migratory from Greenland. Desma- 

 rest, however, speaking of this species, (Phoca 

 Greenlandica,) states, that it leaves the coast of 

 Greenland twice a year, in the month of March 

 to return in May, and again in July, to return 

 in September. Professor Bell, in his History 

 of British Quadrupeds, makes the same observa- 

 tion, adding that these seals " remain princi- 

 pally on the floating masses of ice, and are 

 thus occasionally carried to various parts of the 

 northern sea. In the same manner, it is pro- 

 bable that some unusual drifting of such floes 

 of ice might have been the means of transport- 

 ing the individuals \v\ich have sometimes been 



i 



