1881.] MR. R. COLLETT ON THE GREY SEAL. 385 



the lacerated skins of the animals give ample evidence. Sometimes 

 great pieces of skin are torn off, especially on the neck and throat. 

 These conflicts are so frequent that nearly all the older males bear 

 scars from them, and it becomes difficult, when a specimen is required 

 for museums &c., to fiud one perfectly uninjured. 



The female on her part appears to be just as eager to accomplish 

 copulation as the male ; and it has often been observed that a male 

 is sometimes so hard pressed by several females desirous of copula- 

 tion, that he is compelled to seek refuge on the rocks and take to 

 the water on the other side in order to get away; this has been 

 certified by many eye-witnesses. However, there is seldom any 

 want of males, although it is nearly without exception from among 

 these that the few full-grown Seals (killed together with the young 

 ones) are shot. If a family in this manner happens to lose its chief, 

 a new one soon makes its appearance. 



D. Mode of Capture. 



From the earliest times the pursuit of the young Seals on the Fro 

 Islands has commenced on a certain day, namely the J 7th or 18th 

 of October. The young, which are at this date three weeks old and 

 about to leave the islands, are then in their best condition. If stormy 

 weather or other reasons shall have delayed the pursuit until over 

 this period, many young ones are found to have already taken to the 

 sea, and are then difficult to catch, as they have become quite as shy 

 and wary as the old ones. Such young ones as are found to be too 

 small at the catching-time, and are consequently of less value, are 

 left undisturbed ; and they are often to be foiind at a later period on 

 the same spot. 



The young ones are killed by a blow on the snout with a wooden 

 club about two feet in length ; the full-grown ones are shot : but 

 these, as a rule, are spared ; and such is always the case with the 

 females; the young ones which are estimated to have less than 

 12 kilogrammes of blubber on them also escape. The flesh and 

 blubber of the young ones is eaten salted by the fishermen, and is 

 said to taste tolerably well, as the young ones only subsist on the 

 milk of the mother. 



Although the capture is dependent on the state of the weather, 

 the annual take always amounts to between 50 and 70 young ones. 

 Some years {e.g. 1880) only half the usual produce is reahzed, 

 stormy weather preventing approach to the most frequented places 

 of resort. At the utmost there are not born more than 100 

 Seals annually at the breeding-places on the Fro Islands. It is 

 useless to shoot the larger Seals in the water, as they generally sink 

 instantaneously ; they must either be shot on the rocks, or, as is 

 generally the case, in shallow water, whence they can afterwards be 

 taken up. The young ones always float when killed, except when 

 they are very lean'. 



' At Melci and Trceneii, in NorcUand, where the capture of Seals is also 

 carried ou during the breeding-time in the autumn, the sealers are accustomed 

 to steal ou the animals whilst asleep and deal them a etunnlng blow with a 



