384 GILPIN ON THE SEALS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 



apparent diversity in the accounts of Naturalists. The skull 

 measured nine and one half inches in length, and six and a quarter 

 in width. The bones very massive and muscular ridges large. 

 The palatine foramena came out at the junction of the maxilla and 

 palate bones, and a shallow canal passed forward from them. 

 Edge of palate transverse with no notch. The intermaxilla bones 

 were very large and the nasal cartilage greatly developed at the 

 muzzle. The teeth were, upper jaw tvv^o inscissors, one canine and 

 five molars ; the lower jaw the same except only one inscissor^ 

 The crowns of the molars were much worn, but the cutting edge 

 maintained a lobular form, and the outside of the enamel had the 

 fine ocinilation described by previous authors. The molars were 

 widely separated from each other, as were indeed all the teeth, 

 though in a less degree. This skull compared exactly with the 

 figure in Gray's *' Catalogue, Seals B. Museum." 



This seal is only a rare visitor to our shores. As I have before 

 said the common or harbor seal and the great grey seal are our only 

 residents. But as the Walrus, now a much more arctic species was 

 once common here, there can be little doubt that all the North- 

 eastern American species once dwelt on our shores. The early 

 French winters as well as the English traders to New England, can 

 scarce find words to express the teeming life of seals, dolphins, 

 porpoise and whales which fed upon the migratory fish that literally 

 thickened the seas around. They have all passed away. The fish 

 have nearly followed them, leaving as problems how an arctic 

 climate and loss of genial heat, may have modified their former 

 somewhat equatorial habits and forms, as some moderns asert the 

 whales which once sported in our sun-warmed shallow waters, 

 dare not now pass the warm Gulph Stream. I have followed the 

 classification of Gray B. Museum, giving the synonymes of Ameri- 

 can authors* 



