424 MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. [Juiie 25, 



(4) Phoca barbata, O. Fab. 



Callocephalus barbatus, F. Cuv. 

 Phoca leporina, Lepech. ? 

 Callocejjhalus leporinus, F. Cuv. 



Popular names. — Hafert skill (Swedish)* ; Ajne (Lapp) ; Ursuk 

 (so written by Fab., but in north Greenland always pronounced 

 oo-soo/c)f (Greenland). It is also called Takamugak ; but I never 

 heard the term applied ; so that it must be rarely used. 



What the "great Seals" of Pennant and other authors are has 

 yet to be investigated ; they were originally all set down to be this 

 species, but are now generally supposed to belong to the Grey Seal 

 {HuUchoerus grypus). The skeleton in the Edinburgh museum at 

 once decides that the Haaffish of Shetland and Orkney, which Dr. 

 Fleming referred to P. barbata, belongs to the former species. The 

 male is there called the " BuUfish." The Tapvaist of the western 

 islands of Scotland appears also to belong to that species, H. grypus 

 being a common Seal among the Hebrides. 



Descriptive remarks ^'c. — Next to the Walrus this is the largest 

 species of the order found in the northern seas. Perhaps, however, 

 H. grypus may occasionally be fovmd to equal it in size. 



Geographical distribution Sfc. — This species has been so often 

 confounded with the Grey Seal {H. grypus) and the Saddleback 

 (P. grcenlandicus) in different stages and coats, that it is really very 

 difficult to arrive at anything like a true knowledge of its distribution. 

 In a note at the end of the notice of this species I shall have some- 

 thing to say regarding the probability of its identity with the Ground- 

 Seal of the English Seal-hunters of the Spitzbergen sea. On the 

 coast of Danish Greenland it is principally caught in the district of 

 Julianshaab a little time before the Klapmyds. It is not, however, 

 confined to South Greenland, but is found at the very head of Baffin's 

 Bay, and up tlie sounds of Lancaster, EcHpse, &c. branching off 

 from the latter sea. The Seals seen by the earlier navigators being 

 nearly always referred in their accounts to either Phoca vitulina or 

 P. grcenlandicus renders it at present almost impossible to trace its 

 western range ; it is, however, much rarer in the north than in the 

 south of Davis's Strait. Accordingly the natives of the former region 

 are obliged to buy the skin from the natives of the more southern 

 settlements, as it is of the utmost value to them. This Seal comes 

 with the pack-ice round Cape Farewell, and is only found on the 

 coast in the spring. Unlike the other Seals, it has no atluk, but 

 depends on broken places in the ice ; it is generally found among 

 loose broken ice and breaking-up floes. 



Economic value ^c. — This animal is of great importance to the 

 Eskimo ; they cut the skin into long strips for harpoon-lines — a sine 



* Newton {I. c.) says that this is the Seal known to the Norse hunters about 

 Spitzbergen as the Slor-kohbe (Great Seal), and less seldom Blaa-kobbe (the Blue 

 Seal). 



t OosooJc also means blubber. The name may possibly refer to the size or fat- 

 ness of the animal, and mean " the big, fat Seal." 



