18G8.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 419 



are perfectly helpless, and the sealer kills them with a blow of the 

 sharp-pointed club or a kick over the nose with his heavy boot. 

 The mother will hold by her young until the last moment, and will 

 even defend it to her own destruction. I have known them seize 

 the hunter when flaying the young one, and inflict severe wounds 

 upon him. In 1862, during a severe gale of wind many of the young 

 seals were blown off the ice and drowned. Sometimes the sealing- 

 ships have accidentally fallen among them during the long dark 

 nights of the end of March or beginning of April, and were aware 

 of their good luck only from hearing the cries of the young Seals. 

 The white-coat changes very quickly. In 1862 the late Capt. 

 George Deuchars, to whom science is indebted for so many spe- 

 cimens, brought me two alive from near Jan Mayen ; they were 

 white when brought on board, but they changed this coat to a dark 

 one completely on the passage, of a week or ten days. They ate 

 fresh beef, and recognized different persons quite readily. The 

 young "whitecoat" represented on the plate oi Phoca harbata by Dr. 

 Hamilton ("Amphibious Carnivora," Naturalist's Library, vol. viii. 

 pi. 5), from a specimen in the Edinburgh Museum, is not the young 

 of that species, but of Pagophilus yroenlandicus. The young white- 

 coat, however, is much plumper than the specimen figured ; indeed, 

 in proportion to its size, it has much more blubber between the skin 

 and the flesh than the adult animal. 



(/3) They take the water under the guidance of the old females. 

 At the same time the colour of the skin begins to change to that of 

 a dark speckled and then spotted hue ; these are denominated 

 " Hares " by the sealers*. 



(y) This colour gradually changes to a dark bluish colour on 

 the back, while on the breast and belly it is of a dark silvery hue. 

 Young Seals retain this appearance throughout the summer and are 

 termed "Bluebacks" by the sealers of Spitzhergen, "Aglektok" 

 by the Greenlanders, Blaa-siden by the Danes f. 



(I) The next stage is called Millaktok by the Greenlanders. 

 The Seal is then approaching to its mature coat, getting more 

 spotted, &c., and the saddle-shaped band begins to form. 



(e) The last stage (in the male to which these changes refer) is 

 the assumption of the halfmoon-shaped mark on either side, or the 

 " saddle " as it is called by the northern sealers. 



I consider that about three years are sufficient to complete these 

 changes. This is also the opinion held in Newfoundland, though 

 the Greenland people consider that five years are necessary. I wish, 

 however, to say that these changes do not proceed so regularly as 

 is usually described, some of them not lasting a year, others longer, 

 while, again, several of the changes are gone through in one year ; 

 in fact the coats are always gradually changing, though some of 



* In this state it is not unlike Halichmrus grypus, but can be distinguished 

 by the cliaracters given by Nilsson, Skand. Fauna, i. p. 301. 



t The dental formula of a Seal in this stage killed by nie in Davis's Strait, 



September 1861, was : — Incisors j ; canines j— r-; molars g^. 



