50 K. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 



t. 6, 7) is identical with it. Stragglers even find their way into 

 temperate regions; and this is so frequently the case that this 

 Seal may now be classed in the fauna of nearly all of the northern 

 shores of Europe and America. The period of the year influ- 

 ences its position in the Spitzbergen sea (the " Greenland Sea" of 

 the Dutch, the " Old Greenland " of the English whalers). Early 

 in March it is found by the sealing-ships in immense numbers in 

 the proximity of the dreary island of Jan Mayen,* off the east 

 coast of Greenland, not far from the 72nd parallel of north lati- 

 tude ; but, of course, the longitude varies with the extent which 

 the ice stretches out to the eastward, though the common meridian 

 is between 6° and 8° west of Greenwich. They are never found 

 far inwards on the fixed ice, but on the margin of the icebelt 

 which extends along the whole of the eastern shores of Greenland, 

 stretching as far as the longitude of Iceland, and sometimes even 

 for a hundred miles to the eastward of that island and of Jan 

 Mayen island into the ocean. The general direction of its sea- 

 margin is towards the north-east, stretching most commonly as 

 far as Spitzbergen, to N. lat. 80°, but occasionally only to about 

 75° N. lat., where it joins at an angle another belt of ice which lies 

 in a southern and eastern direction along the coast of Spitzbergen 

 to Cherrie Island. This easterly belt of ice is what the whalers 

 call a " south-east pack " ; and at the angle where the two belts 

 join, a passage can generally be accomplished through to the 

 Spitzbergen waters. The nature of the ice, which can easily be 

 perceived by the experienced sealer, determines whether the Seals 

 will be found far from the margin of the ice. Thus, if there is 

 much new light ice, it is probable that the Seals will have taken 

 the ice at a considerable distance from the seaboard margin of 

 the pack, as it is well known that instinctively they select ice 

 of a strong consistence for the safety of their young when in that 

 helpless condition in which they are unable to take to the water. 

 Again, they often take the ice where it stretches out to sea in the 

 form of a long, broad promontory, with apparently this end in 

 view, that their young may easily get to sea when able to do so ; 

 this is the great clue which guides the sealer in the choice of the 

 ice where he may find his prey. This was very well exhibited in 

 1859. Dr. Wallace tells me that there was very little ice that 

 year, and the island of Jan Mayen was altogether free from it ; 

 indeed the nearest ice lay away nearly 70 miles or more to the 

 north-west of it. The " Victor," the '' Intrepid," and a fleet of 

 other ships met with indications of Seals in 72° N. lat., about 

 eighty miles in a north-westerly direction from Jan Mayen, in 

 the early part of the month of April ; they had sailed in an 

 easterly direction through a very loose pack of very heavy ice. 

 The prospects were so good that Capt. Martin, Sen., of the " In- 

 trepid," perhaps the most successful sealer who ever sailed in the 



* Hence the Norse sealers often call it the Jan Mayen Kohbe (the Jan 

 Mayen Seal), but more often the Springer, from its gambolling motions in 

 the \fhale (Newton, /. c). 



