48 R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 



or among the ice where it is loose and scattered ; for in the 

 month of May sealers fall in with the old Seals (male and 

 female) in about from N. lat. 73° to 75°, and in the following 

 month still further north, by which period the young ones have 

 also joined them. The females commonly produce one at a birth, 

 frequently two ; and there is good reason for supposing that there 

 are occasionally three, as most sealers can tell that they have 

 often seen three young ones on a piece of ice floating about which 

 were apparently attended by only one female. Yet it is only 

 proper to remark that, of the several ships I have heard of finding 

 the Seals when taking the ice, none of the hunters have been able 

 to tell me that they took more than two from the uterus of the 

 mother.* In contradiction to the opinion of some experienced 

 sealers, I think that it is more than probable that they produce 

 but once a year. 



(a) The colour after birth is a pure Avoolly white, which gra- 

 dually assumes a beautiful yellowish tint when contrasted with 

 the stainless purity of the Arctic snow j they are then called by 

 the sealers " white-coats " or " whitey-coats "f ; and they retain 

 this colour until they are able to take the water (when about 14 

 or 20 days old). They sleep most of this time on the surface of 

 the snow-covered pack-ice and grow remarkably fast. At this 

 stage they can hardly be distinguished among the icy hummocks 

 and the snow — their colour thus acting as a protection to them ; 

 for in this state they are perfectly helpless, and the sealer kills 

 them with a blow of the sharp-pointed club, or a kick o^^er the 

 nose with his heavy boot. The mother will hold by her young 

 until the last moment, and will even defend it to her own destruc- 

 tion. I have known them seize the hunter when flaying the 

 young one, and inflict severe wounds upon him. In 1862, during 

 a severe gale of wind many of the young Seals were blown off 

 the ice and drowned. Sometimes the sealing-ships have acci- 

 dentally fallen among them during the long dark nights of the 

 end of March or beginning of April, and were aware of their 

 good luck only from hearing the cries of the young Seals. The 

 white-coat changes very quickly. In 1862 the late Capt. George 

 Deuchars, to whom science is indebted for so many specimens, 

 brought me two alive from near Jan Mayen ; they were white 

 when brought on board, but they changed this coat to a dark 

 one completely on the passage of a week or ten days. They ate 

 fresh beef, and recognised different persons quite readily. The 

 youno" *' white-coat " represented on the plate of Phoca barbata 

 by Dr. Hamilton (•' Amphibious Carnivora," Naturalist's Library, 



* Fabricius says that two at a birfh is an exceedingly rare occurrence. 

 Perhaps, after all, Pliny has struck the truth in regard to the order when he 

 says, " Parit nunquam geminis plures" (Hist. Nat., lib. 9, sec. 13). 



f These are rarely seen in Danish Greenland, and then are called "Isblink" 

 hy the Danes from their colour, at least so Pabricius says. He, moreover, 

 informs us that the third year they are called Aglektok (as mentioned above), 

 ihe fourth Millaktok, and after a winter Kinaglit, when they are beginning t3 

 a^ssume the harp-shaped markings of the male (Nat. Selsk. Skrift., i., p. 92). 

 J never heard these names in North Greenland. 



