K. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 45 



with feelings of curiosity and wonder ; but on the ice beside their 

 blow-hole it is almost impossible for the hunter to approach them, 

 so much are they on the alert and so easily alarmed. In Davis's 

 Strait they especially feed about the base of icebergs and up the 

 ice-Qords. The great ice-fjord at Jakobshavn is a favourite 

 haunt of theirs ; the reason for this predilection is apparently 

 that their food is found in such localities in greater abundance. 

 The bergs, even when aground, have a slight motion, stirring 

 up from the bottom the Crustacea and other animals on which 

 the Seals feed ;* the native, knowing this, frequently endangers 

 his life by venturing too near the icebergs, which not unfrequently 

 topple over upon the eager Seal-hunter. 



The old males have a most disgusting smell, which has suggested 

 the name fcetida. Even the callous Eskimo is not insensible to it.f 



Geogjrtphical Dlstnbution, ^c. — In the Spitzbergen sea they 

 appear to be confined to high latitudes, and especially to the 

 parallels of 76° and 77° N. ; and it is in these latitudes that the 

 whalers chiefly find them. In Davis's Strait they are to be found all 

 the year round, but particularly up the ice-fjords. Their capture 

 constitutes the most important feature of the Seal-hunt in North 

 Greenland ; but many are also killed in South Greenland, the 

 Neitsik figuring largely in the trade-returns of that Inspectorate. 

 In Jakobshavn Bay, I am told, they are quite numerous about the 

 middle of August. 



Economic Vahie. — They are extensively captured for food and 

 clothing. Notwithstanding the nauseous smell of the old ones, 

 the flesh of all of them (but especially the younger individuals) 

 is sufficiently palatable to an educated taste. During the latter 

 end of summer and autumn it forms the principal article of food 

 in the Danish settlements, and on it the writer of these notes 

 and his companions dined many a time ; we even learned to like 

 it and to become quite epicurean connoisseurs in all the qualities, 

 titbits, and dishes of the well-beloved Neitsik ! The skin forms 

 the chief material of clothing in North Greenland. All of the 

 ol TtoXKoi dress in Neitsik breeches and jumpers ; and we sojourners 

 from a far country soon encased ourselves in the somewhat hispid 

 but most comfortable Neitsik nether garments. It is only high 

 dignitaries like " Herr Inspektor " that can afford such extrava- 

 gance as a Ka,s&lgi?ik (Callocephalus vitulinus) wardrobe ! The 

 Arctic belles monopolise them all. 



(3.) Pagophilus groenlandicus (Miill.), Gray. 



Phoca grcenlandica, Miill. Callocephalus oceanicus^ Less. 

 P. oceanicay Lepech. Phoca semilunaris, Bodd. 



* Hr. Distrikts-Lsege Pfafif, who has residerl at Jakobshavn for many years 

 as district medical officer of North Greenland, suggests this to me ; and the 

 idea recommends itself as being that of a very intelligent naturalist. 



t "Mares veteres foetidissimis ad nauseam usque etiam Grcenlandis " (Fab. 

 F. G.). Homer refers to this in another species (probably Monachus albi- 

 venter^ : 



" Web-footed seals forsake the stormy swell, 

 And sleep iu herbs exhaling nauseous smell." 



