THE GREAT SEAL. 



Phoca barbata, Great Seal ; in Shetland, Huff-fish, or 

 Ocean Seal. 



Male. — The largest individual which I have examined 

 was somewhat more than eight feet from the muzzle to the 

 end of the tail ; girth round the shoulder six feet. The 

 hide weighed fifty-five pounds ; the blubber one hundred 

 and forty-five pounds ; weight of the whole body six hun- 

 dredweight. They are occasionally, however, larger ; one 

 shot by myself on a rock, but not got owing to its having 

 rolled over into the sea in deep water, was certainly a foot 

 longer. In this species greater irregularity as to size occurs 

 than in the small seal, and this may partly arise from the 

 more numerous difficulties with which they have to struggle 

 in their earlier years, and the greater uncertainty of obtain- 

 ing sufficient supplies of their ordinary food. A mode of 

 measuring them to the end of the hind-paws, instead of to the 

 point of the tail, makes also a great difference, and accounts 

 for the reports of very large individuals said to have been 

 met with. The general colour of the body is dark leaden, 

 with irregular and largish patches of black ; the belly 

 paler ; the head and paws darkest ; toes dark brown. As 

 age advances the colour becomes darker, till at length it is 

 throughout bluish-black. In most adult individuals, perhaps 

 I should say in all, there are round the neck, four or five 

 rings of hair, a little longer than that on the rest of the body, 

 which gives the animal the appearance, when rearing his 

 head somewhat out of the water, as if several small ropes en- 

 circled the throat. The body is more depressed on the back, 

 and less tapering towards the tail than that of the vUidina, 

 the pelvis appearing proportionably broader ; the snout is 

 very elongated ; the nose aquiline, very similar in profile to 

 that of a ram ; the muzzle very broad and fleshy, and the 

 upper lip and nose extending about three inches beyond the 

 lower jaw, so that, in seizing its prey, the animal seems 



