MAMMALIA OF N. GREENLAND AND GRINNELL LAND. 359 
antiquity, whilst Lieutenant Giffard, R.N., found and brought to 
the ship a portion of an antler which he picked up in lat. 82° 45’ N. 
It does not appear that the ‘ Polaris’ Expedition observed any 
trace of the Reindeer in Hall Land, neither was it obtained there 
by our Expedition. 
Phoca hispida.—The Ringed Seal was met with in most of the 
bays we entered during our passage up and down Smith Sound. 
It was the only species seen north of Cape Union, and which 
penetrates into the Polar Sea. Lieutenant Aldrich, R.N., during 
his autumn sledging in 1875, noticed a single example in a pool 
of water near Cape Joseph Henry, and a party which I accom- 
panied in September, 1875, secured one in Dumbell Harbour, 
some miles north of the winter-quarters of the ‘ Alert’: its stomach 
contained remains of crustaceans and annelids. In June of the 
following year I observed three or four of these animals on the 
ice of Dumbell Harbour. They had made holes in the bay ice 
that had formed in this protected inlet. The Polar pack was 
at this time of the year still firmly wedged against the shores 
of Grinnell Land, and so tightly packed in Robeson Channel that 
no Seal could by any possibility have worked its way into this 
inlet from outside. I am therefore quite satisfied that Phoca 
hispida is resident throughout the year in the localities mentioned. 
A female killed on the 23rd August, 1876, weighed sixty-five 
pounds. 
Phoca barbata.—On several occasions while proceeding up 
Smith Sound I observed this large Seal. We did not see it 
north of Robeson Channel. Individuals were procured in Dis- 
covery Bay, lat. 81° 44’ N., and also at Thank God Harbour, from 
whence it has been recorded by Dr. Bessels. As previously men- 
tioned, I found the skulls of this animal in the ancient Eskimo 
settlements of Smith Sound. On the 31st August, 1876, Hans, the 
Greenlander on board the ‘ Discovery,’ shot one of these Seals in 
Dobbin Bay. I was informed that it weighed 510 tbs. On taking 
off its skin an Eskimo harpoon was found buried in the blubber 
on its back; the socket of the dart was made of ivory, the blade 
being wrought iron. Hans pronounced it to be a Greenland har- 
poon-head, and suggested that the animal had been struck in the 
Danish settlements. P. greenlandica is recorded by Dr. Bessels 
from Thank God Harbour, but I did uot observe it in Smith Sound 
or northwards. 
