SEALS. 487 



or less resembling that of a child. The cry of the young is 

 usually more or less pathetic, while that of the adults is heavier 

 and hoarser. None appear to produce the loud barking or roar- 

 ing so characteristic of most of the sea-lions and sea-bears." 



Seals are gregarious, or at least many species of them. Some 

 keep together in large numbers at all seasons, while others only 

 during the breeding season. With the exception of the crested 

 seal of the North Atlantic they are all harmless animals, for only 

 this species will habitually resist an attack or possesses powers that 

 can be regarded as in any degree dangerous. All the Phocidce 

 exhibit very strong affection for their young, and as a rule they 

 have but one at a time. 



The greatest enemy to seals is undoubtedly man, for consider- 

 ably over a million of them are annually slain for their oil and skins. 

 Large numbers also become the prey of sword-fish and sharks ; 

 Mr. Carrol states that he has observed the former denizen of the sea 

 resort to the ingenious device of pressing down the edge of a piece 

 of ice upon which a seal was floating, so that the animal had per- 

 force to slip into the water. He also asserts that seals have been 

 known, when a sword-fish or shark appeared, to wriggle up to a 

 man for protection. As before described, the species which in- 

 habit the northern seas are the favourite food of the Polar bears. 

 Many of them are also destroyed during the spring when a heavy 

 sea is running, and the annual breaking up of the ice takes place, 

 by the jamming together of the drift-ice and ice-floes upon which 

 they lie. 



The natives of Greenland and the northern tribes generally are 

 dependent on the seals for many of their comforts and necessaries. 

 From the skins they make materials for their boats and sledges, 

 and they also use them for clothing, and by the exercise of con- 

 siderable ingenuity they fashion most useful articles and imple- 

 ments from the bones and hides. The flesh is most palatable, and 

 forms the chief food of these people. Our Arctic voyagers always 

 appear to appreciate it, if we can trust the accounts that have 

 been published at various times on the subject. 



Dr. Horner, surgeon to the Pandora, writing in Land and Water, 

 in December 1875, refers to the importance of the seals to the 



