406 MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. [JlinC 25, 



into the seas between Spitzbergen and Jan May en ; that year, 

 however, proved a partial failure, and we returned to England by the 

 end of April, leaving immediately for Baffin's, on which voyage I 

 also accompanied her. Dr. John Wallace, now of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company's Service, during the previous year also made a 

 similar voyage, but was fortunate enough to enjoy better opportu- 

 nities of observing the habits of Seals than I did ; for at the period 

 when I left for Davis's Strait, he remained behind, and passed the 

 whole summer in the sea between Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen, and the 

 east coast of Greenland. On my arrival in England he put into my 

 hands an excellent series of notes on these species of animals, 

 part of which I communicated to the Royal Physical Society of 

 Edinburgh in 1862, and of which an abstract was published in 

 their ' Proceedings ' for that year. At that time, having some inten- 

 tion of preparing a more extensive work, I reserved my own obser- 

 vations and a great portion of Dr. Wallace's until such time as this 

 might be matured ; besides, there were innumerable points in the 

 history of the Seals which I was desirous of investigating before put- 

 ting any of our observations before the world. However, shortly 

 after this I left on a very long scientific journey, far from the scene 

 of our former studies, and for more than four years the whole sub- 

 ject was laid aside. In the summer of 1867 I again found myself a 

 sojourner as far north as 70° N. lat., in Danish Greenland. During 

 this time I made a very extensive collection of the skeletons, skulls, 

 &c. of these and other animals, besides adding to and correcting 

 some of my former observations. That osteological collection is not 

 yet examined ; but this is the less important, because, so far as I 

 was able to judge during the hasty examination it was possible to 

 give them during the process of preservation, there are no new spe- 

 cies among them. Moreover the craniological characteristics of the 

 northern Pinnipedia, thanks to the labours of Nilsson, George and 

 Frederick Cuvier, Blainville, Gray, Gaimard, Lilljeborg, and others, 

 are now very satisfactorily determined ; and what points are still 

 sub judice can easily be settled by an appeal to the collections 

 already in our Museum, and to the one formed by me when it is 

 made accessible to science. 



These notes are still very imperfect ; but as my stay in England 

 is uncertain, I think it only right, if they are of any value at all, 

 that they should be pnbHshed, reserving to myself the hope that at 

 some future day I may be enabled to present a more complete mono- 

 graph of the Pinnipedia. In the following notes are combined most 

 of my own observations with selections from those of Dr. Wallace 

 (distinguished by his name within parentheses when I have been un- 

 able to confirm the observation) ; and to keep up the continuity of 

 remark I have been compelled to occasionally repeat the substance of 

 a portion of the abstract formerly referred to*. x\s this, however, has 

 been misunderstood, I think that this partial review will not be ob- 

 jected to, especially as it merely consists of a few paragraphs. The 

 remarks on the species are prefaced by some general observations on 



« Proceedings of the Royal Physifal Society of Edinburgh, 18B2, p. 312. 



