Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XVI, 



appears to coincide very closely with that of the Ribbon Seal, 

 but it is very much less common." 



As already said, I have never seen a specimen of Phoca 

 grcenlandica from the North Pacific, nor from Bering Sea, nor 

 can I find any record of a specimen taken in these waters 

 except as recorded by Pallas, who refers, under his Phoca 

 dorsata, to its occurrence "in mari Camtschatico praesertim 

 circa Olutora observatur, indeque versus arcticum fretum 

 passim habitat." As his Phoca dorsata has been currently 

 synonymized with Phoca grcenlandica (as it obviously is in 

 part), the Kamschatkan record has been accredited to Phoca 

 grcenlandica. Temminck mentions having seen three skins 

 obtained at " Sitka," but this locality is obviously erroneous. 



In writing to Dr. Stejneger, while preparing this paper, I 

 expressed doubt of the occurrence of Phoca grcenlandica in 

 the North Pacific or adjacent arctic waters, and asked him 

 to kindly inform me whether Nordquist recorded specimens 

 taken there during the voyage of the 'Vega,' the report on 

 the scientific results of this voyage not being then accessible 

 to me. 1 Under date of November 7, 1902, he says: "His 

 [Nordquist 's] only authority for Ph. grcenlandica in Kam- 

 schatka is the assumption of its identity with Pallas's Ph. 

 dorsata, and he adds (p. 106): 'In the Zool. Museum of 

 the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg there are found 

 a few skulls and skins under the name of Phoca dorsata with 

 the statement that they are from Kamschatka. They belong 

 without doubt to females and young males of Phoca fasciata. 

 . . . For the present the occurrence of this species in the 

 Pacific seems very improbable.' ' 



The vicinity of Wrangel Island is of course outside of the 

 geographical limits of the present paper; but Mr. Nelson's 

 observations are of special interest in this connection as ex- 

 tending the known range of Phoca grcenlandica far to the 

 eastward of its previous recorded occurrence. Nordquist 

 states that it was not observed on the 'Vega' Expedition 

 east of White Island, near the mouth of the Gulf of Obi, 



1 Through the kindness of Dr. Stejneger I have been able, since this matter was 

 put in type, to consult Nordquist's Report. 



