1^4 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 



• 



pandering south in winter to North Carolina along the ea^t Atlaptic cq^t^ j 

 occasionally ascending rivers. 



DistribHtion in Fa. and N.J. — Now and then found in Pelaware E^y and 

 liver up to the rocks at Trenton Falls. Often noted in ^yinter aloi^ thp entire 

 N. J. coast. Numerous in the waters of northeastern N. J., New York Bay 

 and Hudson River at the same season. 



Records in Pa. and N.J. — As a,ll the following records froni the Pelaware 

 River may refer to both states in a faunal sense, they will not be sepsirgted : 

 Delaware Jiiver.^-The following is extracted from Allen's Monograph of 

 North American Pinnipeds, 1880, pp. 585, 586: "Dr. C. C. Abbott, the 

 •well-known naturalist of Trenton, N, J., kindly writes me : 'In going over my 

 note books I find I have there recorded the occurrence of seals {Phaca vitii-: 

 Una) at Trenton, N. J., as follows: December, 1861; January, 1864; De- 

 cember, 1 866 J February, 1870, and Decenaber, 1877. In [each of] these 5 

 instances a single specinien was killed on the ledge of rocks crossing thg river 

 here and forming the rapids. In December, 186 1, three were seen, and two 

 in February, 1870. A week later one was captured down the river near Bris- 

 tol, Bucks Co., Pa. My impression Js that in severe winters they are really 

 much more abundant in the Delaware River than is supposed. Considering 

 hpw small a chance there is of their being seen when the river is choked with 

 ice, I am disposed to believe that an occasional pair or more come up the 

 river even as high as Trenton, the head of tide water, and 138 miles from the 

 ocean. On examination of old local histories, I find references to seals as 

 not uncommon along our coast and as quite frequently wandering up our 

 rivers in winter. In conversation with an old fisherman, now 76 years old, 

 who has always lived near Trenton and has been a good observer, I learn that 

 every winter, years ago, it was expected that one or more seals would be killed 

 and that about 1840, two were killed in March, which were supposed to have 

 accompanied a school of herring up the river. In my investigations in local 

 archaeology, I have found in some of the fresh-water shell heaps, or rather 

 camp fire and fishing village sites along the river, fragments of bones which 

 were at the time identified as those of seals. These gave me the impression • 

 that the seal, like many of our large mammals:, had disappeared gradually as 

 the country became more densely settled, and that in pre-European times it 

 was common, at certain seasons, both on the coast and inland.' " Dr. Allen 

 subsequently received from Dr. Abbott records of the capture of 8 more seals 

 in New Jersey, mostly near Trenton, during the winter of 1878-79. In Wat- 

 son's Annals is recorded a seal 4 ft. 4 in. long, weighing 61 lbs., which was 

 captured in 1824 near the Repaupo (Gloucester Co.) flood gates, while an- 

 other approached the limits of Pa. (Chester Co.) by ascending tlie Elk River, 

 Maryland. De Kay, in his Zoology of New York, states that fopraeriy they 

 were taken almost every year in the 'f fyke nets" in the Passaic River, N. J., 



