122 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Saddle-back or Harp Seal {Phoca groenlandica, Fab.) ; it is 

 restless and gregarious in its habits, and as the breeding season 

 approaches congregates on the ice off Newfoundland in count- 

 less numbers. In the Greenland Seas it is also found at the 

 same season in large but — owing to undue persecution — greatly 

 diminished packs. This migration takes place with great regu- 

 larity, and the sealers know almost to a day when the old 

 Seals will take to the ice to produce their young. In the 

 latter locality the young are almost all born by the 1st April, 

 and on the 3rd the slaughter takes place ; on the Newfound- 

 land ice the young are produced some fortnight earlier ; there 

 are also a larger number of Hooded Seals found there than 

 further north. 



Later in the season the Greenland ice is invaded by large 

 numbers of Seals from the Labrador ice, on the breaking up of 

 which they travel northward, still along the margin of the ice, 

 resting as they go, till they reach latitude 76° ; they then make 

 for the south end of Spitzbergen, and even pass on to the shores 

 of Novaya Zemlya. 



Between Iceland and Greenland the Hooded Seal {Cystophora 

 cristata, Erxleben) is met with in considerable numbers in the 

 month of June, after the Labrador ice has disappeared, and since 

 1877 they have been hunted with considerable success. These 

 chiefly fall to the Norwegians, though some of our ships also 

 take part in their pursuit, but this locality has of late years 

 offered another inducement to the whalers which I shall mention 

 shortly. The sealing voyage over, most of the vessels go north 

 for the whaling voyage, either to the Greenland Seas, lying 

 between 70° and 80° N. latitude and 20° W. and 10° E. longitude, 

 or to Davis Strait. 



The Newfoundland sealing in the season of 1882 opened 

 under the most unfavourable circumstances, owing to the vast 

 accumulation of ice iu the Atlantic. All through the spring, and 

 quite into the month of June, reports represent the Newfoundland 

 Seas as bristling with huge icebergs, whilst from Cape Breton 

 to 200 miles S.E. of Cape Eice stretched a tremendous pack 

 of heavy ice, which the sealers on their arrival in vain tried to 

 penetrate, effectually closing the port of St. John's. On the 

 2nd March five of the Dundee vessels were reported still fast 

 in the ice, and they only reached St. John's on the 9th March, 



