GREENLAND SEAL. 255 



each Seal of the whole procession on arriving at the 

 same spot did the like, and exactly in the same manner." 

 Mr. Newton suggests that a herd so employed may have 

 been the origin of some of the stories of the Great Sea- 

 Serpent, passing in undulating coils along the surface. 

 Dr. Murie has remarked that the Harp Seals living in 

 the Zoological Society's Gardens used their fore limbs 

 occasionally in progression on dry land, employing them 

 alternately to drag the body forward. 



The food of this Seal consists of fish, of which Fabri- 

 cius specially mentions Cottus scorpius and Salmo arcticus, 

 and also of molluscous and crustaceous animals. 



The young are born on the fixed ice in March ; these 

 are one, rarely two in number, according to Fabricius, 

 but Dr. R. Brown says there are often two, and the 

 sealers believe sometimes three. The cub retains its 

 white woolly coat for a fortnight or three weeks, and, 

 like the young Grey Seal, it refuses to enter the water 

 till this is lost. The changes of colour which the animal 

 undergoes are thus enumerated by Dr. Brown. While 

 it retains the woolly coat it is known to the sealers as a 

 " White-coat." Its first covering of short fur is dark 

 speckled, and now it is a " Hare." The third stage, in 

 which the back is bluish and the belly dark silvery, is 

 distinguished by the name of " Blue-back," and finally 

 the adult colouring is gradually assumed. Dr. Brown 

 thinks that three years are suflicient for this cycle of 

 changes, but in Greenland it is believed to occupy five 

 years. 



The annual take of this species in the Danish settle- 

 ments in Greenland is estimated at thirty-six thousand. 



In the adult male the general colour is tawny or 

 yellowish-grey, sometimes nearly white. The so-called 

 " saddle-mark " is a large crescentic patch of brown or 



