394 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



and which he considered corresponded more closely to 

 Crantz's description of the Eskimo Atarsoak than P. Green- 

 landica, to which it has been referred ; otherwise he be- 

 lieved that it was unknown to science. 



It is the " Ground-seal" of the hunters, and, like the last 

 noticed species, few are taken by the sealers, but are mostly 

 seen by the whalers in high latitudes, especially from the 

 parallel of 76° north latitude as far as Spitzbergen. The 

 length of the male is about eight feet, and the female up- 

 wards of six feet. The colour and peculiar markings of the 

 male very much resemble the male Saddleback, but its ap- 

 pearance is much more robust, and of greater girth for its 

 length ; while, upon the whole, the shade of its colour is 

 darker, and yellowish or coppery ground colour more 

 distinct. The full-grown female, also, to a certain extent, 

 corresponds to the female " Saddleback with this marked 

 difference, that her colour is of a deep tawny yellow. Le- 

 pechin's Phoca leporina of the White Sea, or " Hare of the 

 Sea" of the Bussians, is almost identical with the female 

 ground-seal. Its most common resort is on the floe and 

 fixed ice — in herds of two or three hundred. 



Shannon Isle and the east coast of Greenland are said to 

 be peculiar haunts of this species, in common with the 

 " Bladdernose." Its habits differ much from those of any 

 other species of seal at present known to naturalists. 



Dr Wallace concluded his paper with some general re- 

 marks on the "Habits and Instincts of Seals," and an account 

 of the Greenland seal-fisheries as pursued at the present 

 day. 



Seals pass most of their time asleep, sleeping and waking 

 every two or three minutes. When disturbed, every seal 

 makes an attempt to defend itself, and in the case of the 

 P. leonina, with considerable danger to its assailant, if not 

 well armed. They keep watches during the time the rest 

 are sleeping (and it is said that these watches are gene - 

 rally composed of females !) Their " blow-holes" are evi- 

 dently formed by the seals while the ice is forming, the 

 animal always rising to breathe at the same place, thus pre- 



