SEALS. 237 



possession of external ear-conches. The Sea-Bears and 

 Sea-Lions walk erect like the Walrus, and dilllr I'roni the 

 true Seals in many })oints of their anatomy. They are 

 mostly natives of the South Seas and the Pacific Ocean, 

 and none of them are members of the European fauna. 



On the British coasts Seals are hardly plentiful 

 enougli to be of more than local importance as objects 

 of pursuit, though large numbers are annually killed in 

 some parts of Scotland and Ireland. But it is very 

 different in the far north, where vast herds of Ph. yrcen- 

 landica, Ph. harhata, and Cystophora cristata assemble in 

 spring on the ice of the Greenland and Spitzbergen 

 seas, as well as in Davis's Straits and around Newfound- 

 land. Every spring a large fleet of European vessels 

 sails northwards and coasts along the southern margin of 

 the ice-fields, till the Seals are met with, when the 

 hunters endeavour to cut off their retreat to the open 

 water, and then despatch them with heavy clubs. The 

 numbers thus destroyed are very great ; Dr. R. Brown 

 estimates the value of those killed in the Greenland 

 seas alone at about £1 IG, 000 (Proc. Zool. Soc, 18G8, 

 p. ()0I'). It appears inevitable, as Dr. Brown re- 

 marks, that such indiscriminate slaughter must soon 

 greatl}' diminish the numbers of the northern Seals, 

 and eventually destroy the value of the "fishery." 

 Hut if the Seal is thus an object of value to civilized 

 man, it is still more so to the native Greenlander and 

 Eskimo, to whom it affords many of the necessaries of 

 life. Its flesh is their principal food, the fat yields oil 

 for their lamps, the skin affords excellent clothing, 

 while of the semi-transparent membrane of the intestine 

 they make bottles for storing the oil, windows for their 

 huts, and even shirts. 



The word Seal is certainly I'rom the An"lo-Saxon 



