idea of tho inoclo of proceeding in tlic Greeidand seas, and of the 
effects of tlie system pursued upon the vast packs of Seals wliidi 
loimcily resorted, and in vastly reduced numbers still resort, to the 
northern ice for the purpose of reproduction. With regard to the 
Newfoundland sealing, without some brief notice of which, as it has 
now become the sealing ground ^xtr excellence, my notes would be 
very incomplete— fortmiately, the United States Government, in 
one of that series of admirable publications so Avorthy of an 
enlightened government, has, by the pen of iMr. J, A. Allen, 
in his ‘ History of tho North American Ihnniiicds,’ given an 
exhaustive account; and to this 1 am very largely in.lcbted for the 
brict notice ol tliis branch of my subject. 
Tt is dilUcult lor us, whoso lot is cast in more favouro*! 
latitudes, adecpiatcly to appreciate how vastly imiiorUint bj the 
inhabitants ot tho far North are tho marine mammals which, more 
particularly at a certain period of tho year, fro(]uent tho teeming 
waters which lave their ice-bound shores. Wo have not always, 
hoAvover, enjoyed this immunity, for in the far past, before the 
solitude of tho temperate waters of tho Atlantic Avas broken by tho 
commerce of tho Avorld, and Avhen tho inhabitants of the mighty 
deep were still monarchs of their native element, and man, 
though yet in Gie hunter stage of his existence, A\'as poAverlcss 
seriously to diminish their numbers— the sea contributed, even in 
our more southern latitudes, largely to his sustenance'; for in 
those remarkable refuse heaps knoAvn as “Kitchen jMiddens,” 
left by early man on the sea-shore and by the estuaries of 
large rivers, the bones of marine birds and mammals occur 
in such numbers as to show that in pre-historic times in 
temperate Europe, as in tho present day in some northern 
countries, the flesh of Seals ami cetaceans formed no inconsiderable 
portion of the food of the coast-dwelling tribes ; and, it is said 
that, even so late as the fifteenth century, the principal food of 
the poor in some parts of the r>as<iuo provinces consisted of 
the flesh and tat of Whales. All this is now changed,-the 
Whales are exterminated, and the Seals have become rare° Avithout 
our suti'ering inconA'enience, but in the Polar seas it is far 
ditlerent; for, even in tho present day, to the inhabitants of the 
Arctic Circle the Seal ami the Sca-hor.se form the staff of life 
food, light, clothing— tho tent which .shelters them in summer, the 
