230 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



McClintoek doubts if seals breed in the drifting pack, as 

 they never saw any cubs durii^ their stay in that risky posi- 

 tion. P. hispida may also be known to the Eskimos of the 

 northern coast of America. General Greely writes that it 

 is indigenous at Grinnell Land, and that it was met with as 

 high as latitude 82° 58' north. P. groenlandica is also 

 present as far as latitude 81° 30' north, but he considers it 

 migratory. They secured a number of the several resident 

 species, including 27 examples of P. hispida. Sir Edward 

 Parry's highest latitude (attained in 1827) was 82" 56' 

 north. In a lane of open water in the ice he observed one 

 of the last-mentioned species. This was until recently 

 thought to be the most northerly position ever reached by 

 seals. Mr. Preble noticed a number of skins of this species 

 in the Company's stores at Fort Churchill, Hudson Bay. 



From Hudson Bay, Ungava, and Labrador, the Company 

 receive and sell in London annually thousands of hair-seal 

 skins. Erom 1853 to 1877 the sales aggregated a total of 

 259,600. The three best years in the series were 1867 with 

 21,458, 1861 with 18,104, and 1863 with 16,933 ; and the 

 three lowest, 1853 with 1,425, 1854 with 2,021, and 1855 

 with 2,842. After a long period of good results, the returns 

 have fallen to only 3,061 skins for 1902, and 2,509 for 1903. 

 There is reason to believe that other species of seals besides 

 the harbour seal are embraced in the foregoing sales 

 statement. 



(Some reference to Eort Churchill may not prove out of 

 place among these mammalian notes. Comparatively few of 

 the Canadians of to-day are aware that " upon a rocky spit 

 forming one side, and commanding a splendid harbour, stand 

 the still well-preserved remains of a massive fortification, the 

 most northerly one of British America, scarcely inferior as 

 such even to old Louisburg and early Quebec, its site admir- 

 ably chosen, its design and armament once perfect, and inter- 

 esting still as a relic of a by-gone strife, and now only useful 

 as a beacon for the harbour it had failed to protect." Some 



