56 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



"On examination of old local histories, I find reference to the Seals as not uncommon along 

 our coast, and as quite frequently wandering up our rivers in winter. I can find no newspaper 

 references to the occurrence of Seals later than February or earlier than December, but as histor- 

 ical references to climate, as well as the memory of aged men still living, show conclusively that 

 our winters are now much milder than they were even fifty years ago, it is probable that Seals did 

 come up the river earlier in past years. 



"In conversation with an old fisherman, now seventy-six years old, who has always lived at 

 Trenton, and has been a good observer, I learn that every winter, years ago, it was expected that 

 one or more Seals would be killed; and that about 1840 two were killed in March, which it' was 

 supposed had accompanied a school of herring up the river. 



" In my investigations in local archaeology I have found, in some of the fresh-water shell heaps, 

 or rather camp-fire and fishing-village sites along the river, fragments of bones which were at the 

 time identified as those of Seals. I did not preserve them, as I had no knowledge of their being of 

 interest. They were associated with bones of deer, bear, elk, and large wading birds, and then 

 gave me the impression, which subsequent inquiry has strengthened, that the Seal, like many of 

 our large mammals, had disappeared gradually, as the country became more densely settled, and 

 that in pre-European times it was common, at certain seasons, both on the coast and inland." ' 



In later communications (dated January 25 and March 20, 1879) he inclosed to me newspaper 

 slips and notes respecting the capture of eight specimens in New Jersey, mostly near Trenton, 

 during the winter of 1878-'79. 



On the coast of Massachusetts they occur in considerable numbers about the mouth of the 

 Ipswich River, where I have sometimes observed half a score in sight at once. They are also to 

 be met with about the islands in Boston Harbor, and along the eastern shore of Cape Cod. Captain 

 N. E. Atwood states that they are now and then seen at Provincetown, and that in a shallow bay 

 west of Rainsford Island "many hundreds" may be seen at any time in summer on a ledge of 

 rocks that becomes exposed at low water. 2 



Farther northward they become more numerous, particularly on the coast of Maine and the 

 shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Newfoundland, and Labrador, and are also common on the 

 shores of Davis's Strait and in Greenland, where, says Dr. Rink, " it occurs here arid there 

 throughout the coast," and is likewise to be met with at all seasons of the year. Mr. Kumlien 

 says it is one of the " rarer species " in the Cumberland waters, but its exact northern limit I have 

 not seen stated. 



On the European coasts it is said to occur occasionally in the Mediterranean, and to be not 

 rare on the coast of Spain. It is more frequent on the coasts of France and the British Inlands, 

 and thence northward along the Scandinavian peninsula is the commonest species of the family. 

 It also extends northward and eastward along the arctic coast of Europe, but late explorers of 

 the Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen Islands do not enumerate it among the species there met with. 

 Malmgren states distinctly that it is not found there, 3 and it is not mentioned by Von Heuglin 

 nor by the other German naturalists who have recently visited these islands. From its littoral 

 habits its absence there might be naturally expected. It is also said by some writers to occur in 

 the Black and Caspian Seas, and in Lake Baikal, but the statement is seriously open to doubt, as 

 will be shown later in connection with the history of the Ringed Seal. 



On the Pacific coast of North America it occurs from Southern California northward to 



1 Letter dat<l Trenton, N. J., Dec. 26, 1878. 

 See Bull. Mua. Coinp. Zool., vol. i, p. 19:5. 

 >Weigm. Arch. fUr Natnrg. 1864, p. 84. 



