481 
boat which bears them on the sea, the barb which arms their 
harpoons and fish-hooks, and the runners for the winter sledge, 
are all furnished by these useful animals ; — without them the 
Esquimaux Avould cease to exist, and the high latitudes which they 
inhabit would be incapable of supporting human life. 
Although it is doubtful whether Seals Avere ever sufficiently abun- 
dant upon tlie shores of the British Isles to be of any economic 
importance, in some feAV favoured spots, or outlying islands, 
they must, during the breeding season, have congregated in 
considerable numbers. Low, in the ‘ Fauna Orcadensis ’ {circa 
1790), says, that “a ship commonly goes from this place once a 
year to Soliskerry, and seldom returns without two hundred or 
three hundred Seals;” he also adds that, in North Ronaldsha, 
they take Seals for the purpose of eating. Martin also, in his 
‘Descriptions of the Western Islands of Scotland’ (171G), says, 
that an annual slaughter formerly took place in the Hebrides, Avhen 
as many as three hundred and twenty old and j'oung Seals were 
sometimes killed at one time. These, as also the Orkney Seals, 
Avere doubtless Halichairm griphus ; and in the Farn Islands, in 
1778, the same species AAms still so numerous in the breeding 
season that seventy-tAVO young ones Avere killed in that year. But, 
at the present day, no species of Seal is found in sufficient numbers 
on any part of the British coast to pay for the pursuit. In the 
Arctic seas the Avhalers, doubtless, have ahvays given more or less 
attention to sealing; but it has, until the commencement of the 
present century, been generally subsidiary to the Whale fishery. 
At the present time the Greenland and NeAvfoundland Seal 
fisheries arc actively prosecuted by the British, Norwegians, 
Danes, and Germans ; and at the latter station by the British- 
Americans also. These tAvo form the most important sealing 
grounds; but there are a feAV other localities also visited by sealers, 
Avhich Avill be referred to later on. Before entering into the 
particulars of their capture and ultimate disposal, it Avill bo as 
Avell to give a brief account of the Seals themselves, and of their 
habits and geographical distribution. 
There arc five species of Seal, Avhich arc principally bunted by 
the sealers in the northern seas. 1. The Common Seal of our oavii 
Shores {Phoca vltnliim, Linn). 2. The Binged Seal {Ph. hi.'tplda, 
Schreber). 2. ’i'he Greenland Seal {Ph. grtmimuUca, Fab.). 
