SEALS. 489 



" Seal's meat is a panacea for all complaints among these primi- 

 tive people. Our Esquimaux interpreter 'Joe' had a most 

 troublesome cough when he left England, and was convinced he 

 should not get rid of it until he had seal's flesh to eat. He would 

 not look at any medicine off"ered to him on board, but shook his 

 head and said, ' By and by eat seal, get well.' His prescription 

 turned out to be a very good one, for he had not long been feasting 

 on his favourite food before he lost his cough, and we heard no 

 more of it. For delicate persons, and especially young ladies and 

 gentlemen who cannot succeed in making their features sufficiently 

 attractive on chicken and cheese-cakes, no diet is likely to succeed 

 so well as delicate cutlets from the loin of a seal. 



" For my own part, I cannot help thinking that the diminution in 

 the number of seals caught near the principal Danish settlements 

 in Greenland, has a great deal to do with the prevalence of con- 

 sumption a;nd other diseases among the native inhabitants of those 

 places. Seals are becoming scarcer every year, and in company 

 with the bison of the North American prairies will ere long be of 

 the past, and leave the poor Greenlander and Red Indian to 

 follow them." 



The common seal (Phoca vitulina) is found all round the British 

 coast, and is similar in its habits to the various other species of its 

 genus. When adult it attains a length varying from three to five 

 feet, and its general colour is yellowish-grey, marked with black 

 and brown spots, which are united on the back and sides so as to 

 form a dark mottled grey; ^the under parts are silvery. 



Animals of this species have upon several occasions been seen 

 and even caught in the Thames. Two were caught in 1869 near 

 Putney. 



The Greenland seal (Phoca gnenlandica) is readily distinguish- 

 able by its peculiar markings. Bell,^ referring to this species, 

 writes, " It is strictly migratory, and is in no one locality found all 

 through the year. It may be said to be resident on the coasts 

 of Greenland, but leaves them twice annually from March to 

 May to breed, and again in the pairing season from July to 

 September. In spring it is found in great numbers near the island 



' " History of British Quadrapeds." 



