SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRITISH SEAS. 17 



in the past, there is evidence in the abundance of the remains of this species 

 found in the glacial clays of that country, as identified by Professor Turner.* 



The small Seal found in the inland fresh-waters of Lake Baikal is believed 

 to be a variety of this species, differing only in its darker colour ; it has, 

 however, been separated, under the name of Pli. baikalcnsis by M. Dybowski 

 {Arch. f. Anat. u. Phys., 1873, p. 109). The type of Ph. discolor, F. Cuv., 

 was taken in the Channel, and, according to De Selys-Longchamps, this 

 species has also occurred on the Belgian coast. 



At present its home is the high latitudes of the Arctic seas, especially 

 parallels ^6 and yj deg. North, and many are killed in South Greenland. 

 In Davis's Straits it is found all the year round, particularly up the ice- 

 fjords; in Cumberland Gulf it is said to be by far the most common 

 Seal, and forms the principal food of the Esquimaux. This was the 

 only species found by the late Arctic expedition north of Cape Union, 

 Z2° 15' N. lat. Captain Feilden, the Naturalist to Sir G. Nares' Arctic 

 Expedition, in an account of the ' Mammalia of North Greenland and 

 Grinnell Land' {Zoologist, 1877, p. 359), thus speaks of this species: — "The 

 Ringed Seal was met with in most of the bays we entered during our passage 

 up and down Smith Sound. It was the only species seen north of Cape 

 Union, and which penetrates into the Polar Sea. Lieutenant Aldrich, R.N,, 

 during his autumn sledging, in 1875, noticed a single example in a pool of 

 water near Cape Joseph Henry, and a party which I accompanied in 

 September, 1875, secured one in Dumbell Harbour, some miles north of the 

 winter quarters of the "Alert": its stomach contained remains of crustaceans 

 and annelids. In June of the following year I observed three or four of these 

 animals on the ice of Dumbell Harbour. They had made holes in the bay 

 ice that had formed in this protected inlet. The polar pack was at this 



* Journal of Anatomy and Physiology', 1870, p. 260. 



