1868.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 425 



qud noil of every kayak. Out of every hide can be got four or five 

 lines ; and these are cut in a circular form off the animal before it is 

 skinned ; after this the lines are dried. These allunaks are very 

 strong, and are applied to all sorts of purposes in Greenland travelling. 

 The blubber is more delicate in taste than any other, and is accord- 

 ingly more prized as a culinary dainty, when such can be afforded. 

 There are only from 400 to 600 caught annually {Rink, I. c). 



Talking with Spitzbergen sealers, I used to hear much about the 

 " Ground-Seal," which formed a part of their prey. I was, however, 

 unfortunate enough not to meet with a specimen, the spring of my 

 visit to those seas being what is called "a bad sealing-year ;" and 

 subsequently during my various voyagings in Davis's Straits and 

 Baffin's Bay I failed to find one which could be pronounced to be the 

 "Ground-Seal" of the Seal-hunters. I find, again, among Dr. 

 Wallace's notes, very particular mention made of this species ; and he 

 seems to consider it distinct from all other species found in the 

 Northern seas, and distinguishes it by the MS. name of Phoca grcen- 

 landica major. It does not appear that he was acquainted with 

 P. barbata ; or, at least, it is not mentioned among his otherwise 

 exact memoranda. What I learned regarding it agrees very closely 

 with what he has said about it; I therefore will quote from his 

 manuscript verbatim : — 



"Phoca groenlandica major. It is the 'Ground-Seal' of the 

 sealers. Like the last-mentioned species [^Payomys fcetidus~\ few of 

 them are taken by the sealers ; and they are mostly seen by the 

 Spitzbergen whalers in high latitudes, especially from the parallel of 

 76° N. lat. as far as Spitzbergen itself. The length of the male is 

 about eight feet, and the female upwards of six feet. The colour 

 and peculiar markings of the male very much resemble those of the 

 male Saddleback ; but in appearance it is more robust and of greater 

 girth for its length, while upon the whole the shade of its colour is 

 darker and yellowish, or coppery colour, more distinct. The full- 

 grown female also, to a certain extent, corresponds to the female 

 Saddleback, but with her colour of a deeper tawny yellow. Two 

 females which I saw killed had still the dark-chestnut hue on the 

 back which characterizes the younger Seals, but in addition had the 

 peculiar round and oval spots of a still deeper shade impressed on a 

 yellowish ground ; it seems probable that they were in a transition 

 stage in regard to colour, and that the tawny yellow would gradually 

 gain predominance as they advanced in age towards maturity. 

 Lepechin describes a Seal which frequents the White and Spitzbergen 

 seas which bears a great resemblance to the female of this species ; 

 in fact his description of the Phoca leporina, or ' Hare of the Sea ' 

 of the Russians, almost identifies it with the Ground-Seal (female). 

 The habits of the P. groenlandica major and the localities it frequents 

 very clearly differ from those of P. groenlandica, Miill., which, as 

 above mentioned, with the exception of size, it so much resembles. 

 Its most common retreat is on the floe and fixed ice. I have seen 

 herds, numbering upwards of two or three hundred, lying at their ease 

 close besides their ' blow-holes,' down which they would immediately 



