480 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Great Seal, Phoca barbata, Fabr. ; Norwegian, " Stor Kobbe." — 

 More seen this voyage than in 1881, though that is not saying 

 much. The tenacity of life in this species is remarkable, as 

 recorded before. 



Walrus, Trichechus rosmarus, Linn.; Norwegian, " Hvalros." — 

 Our cook reported seeing one in Sassen Bay on Sept. 18th ; 

 Arnesen would not believe it, but the cook, though a young hand, 

 had been several voyages to the Arctic after Walrus and Seals, 

 and may be supposed to know a Walrus when he saw one ; he 

 declared positively that he had seen it, and added that it was 

 apparently an old one, with one long tusk and the other broken. 

 Arnesen told me that one may often see thousands of Seals and 

 Walruses lying on the ice, but directly it comes on to rain they all 

 disappear into the water, but of snow they take no notice. Walrus- 

 tusks, according to Arnesen, fetch in Tromso 2 kr. (= 2s. 'id.) 

 per tb. English; walrus-hides, 5, 7, to 12 ore per fb. (= from 

 nearly f d. to about 2%d.) ; and their blubber, 40 kr. (= .£2 4s. (>d.) 

 per barrel. 



Whales. — In 1881 I was inclined to believe that we had seen 

 four species of "Firmer" Whale between the Lofotus and Bear 

 Island ; but this voyage from Tromso northwards, I am inclined 

 to think — influenced by the opinion of our captain, Arnesen — 

 that we only saw one species of whale (the Porpoise and White 

 Whale I shall have to mention lower down) ; at any rate, all 

 that we saw were alike called by him " Blaa Hval," and I could 

 perceive no difference between the various examples. I think 

 there can be no doubt that they were a Balanoptera, and it is 

 most probable that they were all B. Sibbaldii. On August 27th, 

 immediately to the north of the Norwegian coast, we saw five 

 whales, the last of which was rather a large one, and we could 

 hear him blowing distinctly when more than a mile (English) off, 

 in about lat. 70° 40' N. Early the next morning Arnesen saw a 

 large wbale in about lat. 70° 55' N. ; on the morning of Sept. 1st 

 he saw one when we were about thirty-three or thirty-four miles 

 N.W. of Bear Island, and plenty of drift-ice all about. Later in 

 the day, when we had steered W. and afterwards S.W. to avoid a 

 ribbon of ice, and when we had just reached its westernmost point, 

 we saw one close to the ice, and the spout of one or more just 

 beyond. On the 3rd, in about lat. 75° 28', two were observed ; after 

 this none were seen until we had again left Spitzbergen to the 





