418 MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. [June 25, 



spoken of the young as being different from the male ; and in my 

 remarks upon their geographical distribution and migrations reference 

 will be made generally to their period and place of procreation, more 

 theoretically, however, than from actual knowledge or observation. 

 I now supply this from a study of this subject in the Spitzbergen 

 sea. The period at which the Saddlebacks take to the ice to bring 

 forth their young may be stated generally at between the middle 

 of March and the middle of April, according to the state of the 

 season &c., the most common time being about the end of March. 

 At this time they may be seen literally covering the frozen waste 

 as far as the eye can reach with the aid of a telescope, from the 

 " crow's nest" at the main-royal mast-head, and have, on such oc- 

 casions, been calculated to number upwards of half a million of 

 males and females. After the females have procured suitable ice 

 on which they may bring forth their young, the males leave them 

 and pursue their course to the margin of the ice ; there the Seal- 

 hunters lose them, and are at a loss as to what course they take, 

 the common opinion being that they leave for feeding-banks ; but 

 where, is unknown. They most probably direct their course along 

 the " cant " of the ice, or among the ice where it has a loose 

 scattered character ; for in the month of May sealers fall in with the 

 old Seals (male and female) in about from N. lat. 73° to 75°, and in 

 the following month still further north, by which period the young 

 ones have also joined them. The females commonly produce one at 

 a birth, frequently two ; and there is good reason for supposing that 

 there are occasionally three, as most sealers can tell that they have 

 often seen three young ones on a piece of ice floating about which 

 were apparently attended by only one female. Yet it is only proper 

 to remark that, of the several ships I have heard of finding the 

 seals when taking the ice, none of the hunters have been able to 

 tell me that they took more than two from the uterus of the mother*. 

 In contradiction to the opinion of some experienced sealers, I think 

 that it is more than probable that they produce but once a year. 



(a) The colour after birth is a pure woolly white, which gradually 

 assumes a beautiful yellowish tint when contrasted with the stain- 

 less purity of the Arctic snow ; they are then called by the sealers 

 "white-coats" or " whitey-coats"f ; and they retain this colour until 

 they are able to take the water (when about fourteen or twenty days 

 old) . They sleep most of this time on the surface of the snow- 

 covered pack-ice and grow remarkably fast. At this stage they can 

 hardly be distinguished among the icy hummocks and the snow — 

 their colour thus acting as a protection to them ; for in this state they 



* Perhaps, after all, Pliny has struck the truth in regard to the order, when 

 he says, ^'Parit nunquam yeminh plures" (Hist. Nat. lib. 9. § 13). 



t These are rarely seen in Danish Greenland, and then are called " Ishlink " 

 by the Danes from their colour; at least, so Fabricius says. He, moreover, 

 informs us that the third year they are called Aylektok (as mentioned above), the 

 fourth Millaktok, and after a winter Kinaglit, when they are beginning to assume 

 the harp-shaped markings of the male (Nat. Selsk. Skrift. i. p. 92). I never 

 heard these names in North Greenland. 



