THE COMMON SEAL. 



V21i 



Greenland Seal. 



of a few weeks destroy nearly 300,000 of these animals. The 

 Greenland winter, it would appear, is too severe for these luck- 

 less wanderers, and when 

 it sets in, they accompany 

 the field-ice, and remain on 

 it until it is scattered and 

 dissolved. Old and young 

 being then deserted in the 

 ocean, nature points out to 

 them the course to their favourite icy haunts, and thither 

 their herds hurry over the deep to pass an arctic summer. 

 Winter returns, and with it commences again their annual 

 migration from latitude to latitude. The Scotch ports, parti- 

 cularly Aberdeen, fit out ships for the spring seal-catching on 

 the American coast, and are generally successful in their under- 

 takings. 



According to the different numbers and forms of their canine 

 teeth and grinders, and to the deficiency or presence of an out- 

 ward ear, the seal tribe is divided into many families, genera, 

 and species, among which I shall select a few of the most re- 

 markable for further notice. The Common Seal or Sea-calf, 

 (Cixlocephalus vitulvnus), 

 which owes the latter name t " \t\ 

 to the unharmonious ac- 

 cents of its voice, attains a 

 length of from five to six 

 feet. It has a large round 

 head, small short neck, and 

 several strong bristles on each side of its mouth, large eyes, no 

 external ears, and a forked tongue. It has six fore teeth in the 

 upper jaw, four in the lower, a strong pointed canine tooth on 

 each side in both jaws, and a goodly row of sharp and jagged 

 grinders. Woe to the poor herring whose evil star leads him 

 between these engines of destruction — he is irrevocably lost ! 

 Different species of common seals inhabit the Northern seas, 

 from Greenland and Spitzbergen to the mouth of the Scheldt, 

 and from the White Sea to the eastern coast of America. 

 Others are found in the Antarctic seas. An excellent swimmer, 

 the seal dives like a shot, and rises at fifty yards' distance, often 

 remaining fuil a quarter of an hour under the water — three 



K 



Seal. 



