382 GILriN ON THE SEALS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 



and the only observations I could make were that the large ones or 

 males had fine bristly turned cheeks ; the young were white, not 

 yellow, and that they were generally double the weight of the 

 common seal. The old males winded me before I came in sight 

 over the sand dunes, and a rapid gallop brought us altogether in 

 the foaming land wash. Deep trails were worn in the sand, from 

 the wide sand-baths they were luxuriating in, down to the wet tide 

 wash. The men told me the whelps changed their coats a few days 

 after birth, and before they took the water. In a paper published 

 about two years ago by Dr. Gill, Smithsonian Institute, he identi- 

 fies this seal with the great grey seal of the Scottish and Irish 

 coasts, so well described by Bell and Nilsson, w^io first separated it 

 from the common seal. His observations were made upon the 

 skulls and skins sent him by Edward Dodd, Esq., late Superinten- 

 dant of the Island. 



CystopJiora cristata. 



Hood Seal. 



In May, 1874, an old female hood seal was taken on a bultow 

 line in one hundred fathoms water, Sambro banks, about twenty 

 miles from the Nova Scotia shore. It was brought into Halifax 

 harbor where I saw it. It measured, 



Nose to end of tail 7 feet 3 inches. 



To end of flippers 7 feet 6 inches. 



Tip of nose to eye 6 inches. 



Tip of nose to fore flipper 2 feet o inches. 



Length of fore flippers 10 inches. 



Length of hand flipper 1 ft. I inch. 



Length of tail 8 inches. 



Diameter of eye 2 inches. 



Mustasche bristle 2 J inches. 



In general appearance this seal was very round but tapering 

 off" suddenly to the tail. The head seemed small, neck long, but 

 all swelling lines marking head from neck, as seen in most draw- 

 ings, were obliterated in fat. There was no mark of a hood upon 

 the forehead, except a protuberence of the nasal cartilage, causing 

 a slight prominence of the profile. The eye was large and flat, 



