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



the more prominent ones may be retained a longer, and others a 

 shorter time. It would require a very careful and extended study of 

 this animal to decide on this point, which, owing to their migrations, 

 it is impossible to give. After all, these changes and their rapidity 

 vary according to the season and the individual, and really will not 

 admit of other than a general description. 



Habits. — It has few other characteristic habits beyond what is 

 mentioned regarding the order generally, or in other sections of 

 this paper on its migrations &c. It is looked upon by the Green- 

 landers as rather a careless, stupid Seal, easily caught by a very or- 

 dinary kayaker. Its food consists of any small fish {Mallotus arc- 

 ticus, Fab., &c.), Crustacea, and even Mollusca. In this its habits 

 agree with those of other species. 



Geographical range and migrations. — The Saddleback has a 

 wide range, being found at certain seasons of the year in almost 

 all parts of the Arctic Ocean, from the American coasts to Nova 

 Zembla, and perhaps even further ; it appears that the Phoca 

 oceanica (Lepechin, Acta Petropolitana, 1777, t. i. pp. 1, 2.59, t. 

 6, 7) is identical with it. Stragglers even find their way into 

 temperate regions ; and this is so frequently the case that this 

 Seal may now be classed in the fauna of nearly all of the north- 

 ern shores of Europe and America. The period of the year 

 influences its position in the Spitzbergen sea (the Greenland sea of 

 the Dutch, the "Old Greenland" of the English whalers). Early 

 in March it is found by the sealing-ships in immense numbers in 

 the proximity of the dreary island of Jan Mayen *, oif the east coast 

 of Greenland, not far from the 72nd parallel of north latitude ; 

 but, of course, the longitude varies with the extent which the 

 ice stretches out to the eastward, though the common meridian is 

 between 6° and 8° west of Greenwich. They are never found far 

 inwards on the fixed ice, but on the margin of the icebelt which 

 extends along the whole of the eastern shores of Greenland, stretching 

 as far as the longitude of Iceland, and sometimes even for a hundred 

 miles to the eastward of that island and of Jan Mayen island into 

 the ocean. The general direction of its sea-margin is towards the 

 north-east, stretching most commonly as far as Spitzbergen, to N. 

 lat. 80°, but occasionally only to about 75° N. lat., where it joins at 

 an angle another belt of ice which lies in a southern and eastern 

 direction along the coast of Spitzbergen to Cherrie Island. This 

 easterly belt of ice is what the whalers call a " south-east pack ;" 

 and at the angle where the two belts join, a passage can generally be 

 accomplished through to the Spitzbergen waters. The nature of the 

 ice, which can easily be perceived by the experienced sealer, deter- 

 mines whether the Seals will be found far from the margin of the 

 ice. Thus, if there is much new light ice, it is probable that the 

 Seals will liave taken the ice at a considerable distance from the 

 seaboard margin of the pack, as it is well known that instinctively 



* Hence the Norse sealers often call it the Jan Mayen Kobbe (the Jan Mayen 

 Seal), but more often the Springer, from its gambolhng motions in the water 

 (Newton, /. e.). 



