Chapter III: Iii.--The Earless Seal Family (phocidæ) (1)

General Characteristics--Peculiar Formation of the Hind
Legs--Dentition--Swimming--THE COMMON SEAL--Range--Fight between
a Seal and Salmon--Colour--Appearance--Annual Catch--Use of
Skins in Greenland--Habits--THE RINGED SEAL--Appearance--Various
Names--Odour--Flesh--Skin Clothes--Haunts--Modes
of Capture--Range--THE GREENLAND, or SADDLEBACK
SEAL--Habits--Appearance--Names--Range--Migrations--“Seals’
Weddings”--Five Stages of Colour--Females--Weight--Seal
Fisheries--Hunting--Implements of Slaughter--Various
Operations--The Sealers--Oil, Skins, &c.--THE BEARDED SEAL--THE
GREY SEAL--THE MONK SEAL--THE CRESTED OR BLADDER-NOSE
SEAL--Range--Size--Ferocity--Character of the so-called
Crest--Dentition--Colour--THE ELEPHANT SEAL--Peculiar
Range--Proboscis--Scammon’s Account--Habits--Hunting--Hardships of
the Hunters--Recreations of the Men--Blubber, Oil, and Skins--ROSS’S
LARGE-EYED SEAL--THE SEA LEOPARD--WEDDELL’S SEAL--THE CRAB-EATING
SEAL--Concluding Remarks--The Slaughter of Seals--Remedies.

Though the want of external ears is quite characteristic of this family, in contradistinction to the last, the fact of the Common Seals’ limb-construction being such as to prevent them from using their four feet on land is a point of special importance. In the general shape of the body and the appearance of the skin they resemble the Sea Lions more than the Walrus. The fore limbs of the Phocidæ are relatively and absolutely shorter than in the Otariidæ. They are so attached to the body as to leave little else free then the hand. The nails are generally longish and claw-like, and the thumb does not so greatly exceed the other fingers as it does in the Otaries. It is on the hind legs that the main distinction is based. While the thigh-bones are uncommonly short, the leg-bones are relatively long, and directed backwards in a line with the spine, and closely bound to the tail by membrane as far as the heel itself. This mechanical arrangement prevents the leg from being thrown forwards, and therefore it is of no use in land progression. The hind feet accordingly mostly rest in a line with the axis of the body, and when spread out form a kind of broad pair of oars; or the soles approximated give a long rudder or fish-tail-like termination. The tail itself is quite conspicuous behind the heels. The outer or great toe, and the inner or little toe, are almost of equal length, the preponderance being in favour of the former, while the three middle toes are smaller in size, and the nails of all are claw-like. The head in general is rounder than that of the Otaries, the eye is much larger and the whiskers somewhat less profuse. Their brain is more spherical. In several minor particulars the skull differs from that of the Otaries, and especially in the dentition is there a marked difference. Three types prevail, of which the Common Seal, the Sea Leopards, and the Crested, or Hooded Seals, are examples. In the first, the dental formula is--Incisors, (3-3)/(2-2); canines, (1-1)/(1-1); premolars, (4-4)/(4-4); molars, (1-1)/(1-1) = 34. The differences in number and shape in the two others we shall notice in the context. With respect to the skeleton generally, bone for bone, the distinctions rather lie in their relative lengths and dimensions than in special difference of construction. The hip-bones, the hind leg-bones, and those of the fore feet, appreciably differ and correspond to the peculiarities of progression, &c., in the two groups. On land, this family (_Phocidæ_) lies on the belly, throws the hind feet back, and by a series of short jerking movements, so-called saltatory efforts, or a curious kind of dragging motion, grovels abdominally on the ground, the short fore-paws either pressed against the body, or, on rocky rougher ground, otherwise slightly aiding action. This movement of the Common Seal doubtless most people have witnessed, and it is quite unique not only amongst the Carnivora, but the whole of the Mammalia. In swimming, the Seals seldom use their fore feet, while the Otaries use them as powerful sweeps. On the other hand, in the Seals the hind limbs have a kind of sculling movement, comparable to a fish’s tail, the sinuous strokes bearing some analogy to those of a screw-propeller. Less swift than the Otaries, they nevertheless move with extraordinary rapidity and power in the water.

In the last family, the Eared Seals, it was pointed out that they had a peculiar geographical distribution, wherein certain forms had alone a northern habitat, and similarly others pertained to a southern. Almost identically, the Earless Seals have northern and southern representatives, but the Elephant Seal ranges both north and south; and the Monk Seal, which, though properly speaking belonging to the northern area, inhabits a strip running east to west within the Temperate zone, indeed nearly approaching the Torrid. It is also worth mention that Van Beneden, Leidy, and others have described quite a number of sub-fossil species, and Phocine genera; though the data for the latter are by no means complete, and probably future researches will considerably modify the conclusions arrived at by these authors. These Seal remains have all been obtained in the Temperate parallel, and regions where the sea no longer flows. In referring to the Earless Seals, as in the case of the Otaries, we shall somewhat follow their geographical distribution.

THE COMMON SEAL.[219]--This most familiar species of the group is as ludicrous in its gait on land as it is surpassingly elegant in its movements in water. Its range is widespread, namely, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and seaboard facing the Atlantic from Spain to Spitzbergen, from Florida along the American coast to Greenland, also near Iceland and Jan Mayen. It likewise abounds on the Scandinavian coasts, and in the Baltic, the British islands being favoured with many visitors. Being a shy, timid, though inquisitive animal, it now frequents the wild, lonely shores of Scotland and Ireland; but in former times even the Isle of Wight and the Cornish coast were famous for the number of their Seals. Still they sometimes visit river-mouths. For example, in 1877, between seventy and eighty large and small Seals, and of different colours, were seen sunning themselves on the sands at low tide at Abertay. Some of these must have gone up the river towards, or even beyond, Dundee, for at West Ferry a desperate and protracted fight between a Seal and a huge Salmon was witnessed, not far from the shore, by several parties. The encounter lasted for more than an hour, the Seal dashing wildly about after its equally agile prey. The Salmon was occasionally tossed into the air, after the fashion of a Cat with a Mouse. Spite of the exertions of the noble fish, it could not escape its pursuer, and at length becoming fairly exhausted, succumbed. The victor frequently rose to the surface with its quivering prey in its mouth ere finally feasting on crimped Salmon.

The Common Seal is of a yellowish-grey colour, spotted above with black and brown, so as to give a mottled appearance, while below it is of a whitish or silvery grey. Ordinarily the hairs are shining and stiff, the colour being dependent somewhat on their being moist or dry; when the former, dark grey predominates. In length it varies from three to six feet, the head being about a tenth part. The roundish head has a short muzzle, prominent whiskers, and large expressive eyes. The skull is distinguished by peculiarities in the shape of the palate and cheek-bones, and by the oblique position of the molar teeth.

Although as valuable as certain other forms hunted by the sealers, its numbers in the Polar regions are comparatively smaller, so that it is not separately pursued by them, though the Greenlanders have a high appreciation of its worth. Dr. R. Brown says the flesh is looked upon as the most palatable of all “Seal-beef,” and he further remarks, “that no more acceptable present can be given to a Greenland damsel than a skin of the _Kassigiak_.” Dr. Rink estimates their annual catch in Danish Greenland between 1,000 and 2,000, and he says that the skin is highly valued for making clothes. It is found all the year round on these coasts, though it more frequently dwells near the river-mouths, and hence has been called the Fresh-water Seal. It bears a variety of names, both local and in different countries, and also according to age. In Greenland the young are produced in June. The cub is at first pure white, a few days later becoming darker, and changing as age proceeds. Though very quiet in disposition it can take its own part when attacked, as the reader of Scott’s “Antiquary” (Chapter xxx.) may remember, where Captain McIntyre’s adventure with the _Phoca_ is narrated with Sir Walter’s usual graphic power. The same author’s lines--

“Rude Heiskar’s Seals through surges dark
Will long pursue the Minstrel’s bark,”

are in reality no poet’s licence, inasmuch as many instances are recorded of music--a flute, or even whistling, for example--bringing them to the surface. Their docility and intelligence are noted from the times of Pliny, and Professor Trail relates how one became a regular sociable kitchen pet. Of another, kept for six months in Shetland, the domesticity was quite marked. Called from a distance, even when in the sea, it would answer plaintively, swim ashore, and make its ungainly way over stones and grass to its lodge. This “Sealchie” amusing herself in the sea one day, a sudden snowstorm came on, during which some wild Seals approached and coaxed her off. A great number of interesting stories are related of the Common Seal, which _Phoque_ lore, however, I need not stay to consider.

THE RINGED SEAL.[220]--This animal has considerable likeness to the last, excepting the fact that it is a very much smaller animal, seldom reaching more than three or four feet in length. It is blackish-grey above, the spotting being marked with oval whitish rings. Below, it is paler in colour, and its hair is softer and usually rougher than the Common Seal’s. Besides these external features, the formation of the cheek and palate bones, and the straight line of the molar, distinguish it from _Ph. vitulina_. In addition to the above name, it is also called Fœtid and Fjord Seal. It is the “Neitsik” of the Greenlanders; “Floe Rat” of the sealers; and is known as “bodack,” or “old man,” in the Hebrides. Other popular names are given it in different countries. The callous Eskimo are not insensible to the disgusting odour exhaled from the old males, and hence the name _Fœtida_. Dr. Rink says that when the large fellows captured in the interior ice-fjords are brought into a hut, and cut up on its floor, a smell is emitted resembling something between that of assafœtida and onions. The flesh of the young, notwithstanding, both he and Dr. R. Brown aver, is sufficiently palatable to an educated taste; and the latter even states that after a time he and his companions became “quite epicurean connoisseurs in all the qualities, titbits, and dishes of the well-beloved Neitsik. The skin,” he goes on to say, “forms the chief material of clothing in North Greenland. All of the οἱ πολλοί dress in Neitsik breeches and jumpers; and we sojourners from a far country soon encased ourselves in the somewhat _hispid_, but most comfortable, Neitsik nether garments. It is only high dignitaries like ‘Herr Inspektor’ that can afford such extravagance as a Kassigiak (_Ph. vitulina_) wardrobe! The Arctic _pelles_ monopolise them all.” The young are of white, though slightly yellowish tint, and the hair is curly. A favourite haunt of the Floe Rat is the great ice-fjord of Jakobshavn. They resort to the ice-floes in retired bays, seldom frequenting the open sea. Dr. Rink calculates that 51,000 are annually captured in Danish Greenland. On an average, he reckons their weight at about 84 lbs. each. He says this Seal, which is also termed “Utok,” is almost exclusively that captured by means of ice-nets. Two nets are used across the track of the Seals near shore, in certain sounds between 63° and 66° N. lat. One is lowered to the bottom, and over this the animals pass; the other intercepts them, and the former is hauled up, and they are then caught in immense numbers between the two, running their heads into the net-meshes. This ruinous slaughter has in many instances driven the “Utok” Seals from their favourite inlets. The Seals form oblique passages through the ice-crust only large enough to allow their getting up and down; and in the sunny days of May are fond of basking on the ice-heaps close by. Towards this hole, usually termed “atluk,” equally adapted for rising to breathe or diving again, the Eskimo hunter cautiously approaches, or, covering his face with his Sealskin jacket, imitates the actions and manners of a Seal, and creeps towards his prey. In other cases, with a wooden frame, covered by white cotton, he pushes this shooting-sail slowly before him towards the animal. When sufficiently near, he despatches the creature with his gun, though it is necessary to inflict a severe wound in the skull or neck vertebræ, else the Seal quickly rolls down the hole and is lost. At other times, a couple of hunters will keep watch at the margin of an “atluk,” and, while one is on the outlook for the animal’s rising to breathe, the other plants his harpoon in the creature, the rope securing the victim. This method of hunting requires great patience, caution, and dexterity, for the acute sense of hearing keeps the animal always on the _qui vive_, and on perceiving the least mischievous stir it instantly escapes.

The geographical area of this species is round the southern coast of Greenland, Iceland, onwards to Spitzbergen, and high latitudes of the Arctic Ocean, towards Nova Zembla and the Russian coasts. It is also asserted that either this animal, or a closely-allied and barely-to-be-distinguished species is that which inhabits Lake Baikal, in North Central Asia, and Lake Ladoga, in Finland. On this head there is some discrepancy in the writings of authorities. M. Dybowski regards the Lake Baikal animal as distinct, and names it _Phoca baicalensis_. Nilsson again avers that the Seal of the Caspian Sea is a distinct species (_Phoca caspica_). On the other hand, Wallace and Van Beneden take a broader view, with which I am inclined to agree, that one, or more likely both, animals may be regarded as the Ringed Seal (_Phoca hispida_). It is very plausibly remarked that in former epochs of the world’s history, as is well known, geologists show that a large area of what is now called Russia in Asia was partially submerged, or, at least, the lakes in question were in more direct communication with the Arctic Ocean. The Seals hence, one might say, had their oceanic connection cut off, and thus, on that account slightly modified, remain as evidence of a once different physical condition of the areas concerned.

THE GREENLAND, OR SADDLE-BACK SEAL.[221]--It is this species that forms one of the chief objects of chase both in the Spitzbergen and Newfoundland seas. In habits it agrees with the ordinary Seals though said to be careless and stupid, and easily captured. It feeds on small fish, crustacea, and mollusca. The males and females differ in appearance, and the changes from the younger to older stages are also very remarkable. Indeed, one may say scarcely two animals are alike. These peculiarities have given rise to a great variety of names--White Coats, Harp Seal, Blue Sides, and other common appellations--besides “Atak” of the Greenlanders, and “Karoleek” and “Neitke” of the Eskimo, &c.

It has a wide geographical range, namely, along the North American coast to Davis Strait, round Greenland, the Scandinavian coasts, the Arctic Ocean eastward to Behring Strait, and even to Kamstchatka. According to Rink, though migratory, it may nevertheless be considered at home on the Greenland coast, on account of its haunting the shore and running over the sounds and fjords during the greater part of the year. There it appears regularly along the southern coast in September, travelling in herds from south to north between the islands. They are then fat, but their blubber still increases towards winter. In October and November they are most numerous; in December they decrease, become scarce in January, and almost disappear in February. In May they return from southwards, and get more northerly in June, when they are very lean. The herds again disappear in July, and return in September. Thus the Saddle-back deserts the Greenland coast twice a year. As to their whereabouts during their absence, information is defective. In spring, early in March, and till the beginning of April, it is found in immense numbers in the proximity of the dreary island of Jan Mayen, and in the Spitzbergen waters, in a belt of ice which the sealers term “South-east pack.” To these great broken ice-fields the Seals in vast numbers resort. At such times, as Dr. R. Brown observes, they may be seen, half a million and upwards, of both sexes, “literally covering the frozen waste as far as the eye can reach, with the aid of a telescope, from the crow’s nest.” At this season, the females give birth to their young--one, or occasionally two, in number. Then it is that the sealing-ships bear up towards the pack-ice; and, whenever opportunity permits, after the young are but a few days old, land and commence their slaughter. As the young increase in strength and take to the water the female parents gradually leave them, and join the males, which have already gone north. In July flocks of Seals, termed by Scoresby “Seals’ weddings,” have been seen at times in the parallels of 76° and 77° N. lat. Opinions are at variance respecting the migration from the west coast of Greenland towards Spitzbergen, and eastwards; and Rink, at least, holds that the Seals of Baffin’s Bay go in the spring down the west side of Davis Strait to Newfoundland and Labrador, where vast numbers are annually killed.

At birth the Saddle-backs are pure woolly white, this gradually assuming a yellowish tint when they take to the water a few weeks old. They then begin to change to a dark speckled, and afterwards a spotted hue, and are called “Hares” by the sealers. Next they become dark-bluish on the back, while the breast and belly are of a sombre silvery hue. They are now “blue-backs.” Getting more spotted, the peculiar saddle-shaped band begins to form as they approach maturity. While in the fifth and last stage, the male acquires that well-developed half-moon-shaped mark on each side, the veritable saddle from which this Seal derives its vernacular name. An adult male is five or six feet long, the female seldom as much. The former is tawny-grey, or with a tinge of yellow or even reddish-brown in the spots, and marked by the saddle or lyre-shaped dorsal bands; hence also the cognomen of Harp Seal. The muzzle and head are dark. The adult female is dirty-white or tawny-bluish, or dark-grey on the back, with widely-distributed irregular spotting, but seldom or never shows the saddles.

Rink says a full-grown Saddle-back weighs about 250 lbs., the skin and blubber over, and the flesh under, 100 lbs. The winter blubber may amount to 80 lbs., but in summer little more than a quarter of that. In Danish Greenland alone about 35,000 are captured annually. Its skin forms the useful covering of the “kayaks,” or Eskimo canoes. The above number is, however, not a tithe of the enormous quantities of these creatures that are each year destroyed in the Greenland (_i.e._, Spitzbergen), and Newfoundland Seal-fisheries. Of this important branch of British commerce it does not behove us to enter into detail, however interesting or appropriate to the subject. Suffice it to say, now chiefly from Dundee, a fleet of ships and powerful steamers built for the trade, proceed, at the end of February and the beginning of March, with a stoppage at the Shetlands to ship hardy seamen, to the pack-ice in the Arctic Sea. Heavy, dark, and dreary weather often awaits the mariners as they coast along the fields of ice. Into the broken-up floes they now and again push their way, and as fortune wills it they may or may not discover from the mast-head a herd in the distance. Occasionally, even during the night, the noise of a family in these dismal regions will be heard, and the ship is soon made fast to the ice hard by, for the Seals during the breeding season frequent such areas of the ice as enable them to have easy access to the water. Then all becomes activity and excitement on board, every man having an interest and share in the expected plunder. The object is, if possible, to approach unperceived, surround, or get between the animals and the water, and, above all, to secure the young, which are more easily killed, and the more lawful prey. The sealers are provided with spiked clubs, sharp knives, seal-guns, and “ruer-ruddies,” or ropes attached by broad belts over their shoulders. Watching their chance the men land in bands, approach cautiously, and commence their dreadful operations. The old Seals abide and guard their young, even endangering their own safety, and will raise themselves up, face, and severely bite the unwary hunter. Crack, crack go the guns, as the older animals endeavour to escape through the holes or towards the water. All and sundry are attacked; a blow of the club, or kick of a heavy sea-boot, despatches the young, while the more aged receive rougher usage ere they succumb. The work of murder goes on apace without stoppage, for once disturbed, no second chance may be allowed the hunter. Told off in batches, some of the men commence the work of skinning, and quickly turn out hide and blubber, throwing aside the (to them) useless carcass, while the skins are heaped in piles. Some collect these, fasten bundles by the rope, and drag them towards the boats, where other sailors are ready to receive them. Thus the murderous operation goes on while there is Seal to be killed, or weather permits the men to remain on the floe, for sometimes the latter will break up, a gale arise, and the poor fellows run even other untold risks. As for the personal appearance of the sealers, as they labour at the work of slaughter, they look the most ruffianly set of men in existence. They are dressed in the queerest caps and coats of various shapes, with smuggler-looking breeches and long boots; moustaches and beards are covered with a mass of frozen tobacco-juice, hoar-frost, and Seal’s blood. Their matted hair, gory, greasy, unwashed faces and hands, reek and smell with a strong taint of butchery. In truth, a spectator, seeing the lot, might almost fancy himself back amongst some of the old bloodthirsty pirates of the Spanish Main. However, they work very hard for their hire. The hides are dropped pell-mell into the hold, and as soon as suiting time arrives, the blubber is sliced off, the skins roughly salted, and in this condition the material is retained for the few weeks until their voyage leads the “fishers” home again. Arrived at Dundee, the cargo is quickly landed, weighed, and the materials placed in the hands of the skinner. The fat is cut up by a variety of cutters driven by steam, and then steamed to facilitate the rendering of the oil. The greater part of the oil thus obtained is tasteless, inodorous, and pure as water. The remaining blubber, after the first oil is taken off, is placed in bags and pressed, and from these pressings most of the brown and inferior quality of oil is had. The former is by far the more valuable. Seal-oil has, of course, varied considerably in price during this century, in 1876-7 averaging £32 a ton, the inferior sort less in proportion. With regard to the skins, these, after being soaked, and the salt got rid of, pass through the usual tanning processes. Relative absence of under-fur gives value only to the leather. Roughly speaking, they fetch five to six shillings apiece.

THE BEARDED SEAL.[222]--About this animal there seems to be a certain amount of ambiguity, or want of agreement among naturalists, whether more than one species be not included under the _Ph. barbata_ of Fabricius. This missionary refers to the “Ursuk,” the big, fat, or great Seal of the Greenlanders. The Russian naturalists Steller, Pallas, and Middendorf, speak of a Seal by different appellations, but most evidently this animal, as inhabiting the neighbourhood of Behring Strait and Kamstchatka. Schrenck and Temminck refer to it as being found, the former on the coast of Amoor land; the latter in Japan, where its skin is sold as an article of commerce. The Leporine Seal of Pennant may be regarded as still another synonym of the same creature. If such be the case, this great Bearded Seal has a geographical range from the west of Greenland to the Sea of Japan, an area somewhat corresponding to that of the Saddle-back, though less spread in the North Atlantic. Rink alludes to it as the “Thong Seal,” the Eskimo cutting the skin circularly into a long strip, which “allunak,” or hide rope, they use for harpoon lines. About 1,000 are captured annually on the Greenland coast. Dr. R. Brown regards it as the “Ground Seal” of the Spitzbergen sealers, and says that the blubber is most delicate in taste, and most highly prized as a culinary dainty. Unlike the other Seals, it has no “atluk,” but depends on broken places in the ice. It is generally found among loose ice and breaking-up floes. Its great size, occasionally ten feet long, and bulky body in proportion, is its important feature. It is of a tawny colour, darker above, and the young is supposed to be of a lighter hue.

THE GREY SEAL.[223]--Its range is a limited one compared with that of the last. It frequents the British coasts, especially Ireland and the Hebrides, and from the Scandinavian coast it stretches towards and round the southern shore of Greenland. It also is of enormous size. One old male, shot in 1869, at the Eagle Rock, Connemara, Mr. A. G. More states, weighed nearly 400 lbs., was eight feet long, and had a girth of body over five feet. Its colour is yellowish-grey, lighter beneath, with varied dark grey spots and blotches. Fabricius first described it, and the Swede Professor Nilsson ranked it as a separate genus, the distinguishing characters depending on the form of its skull and molar teeth, small brain-case, and large nasal orifice, the muzzle being deep and obliquely truncated. To Mr. Ball, of Dublin, we are indebted for a tolerably good account of its habits and other particulars, he having shown it to be the same as Donovan’s Orkney Seal, the so-called _Ph. barbata_. In bringing the matter before the British Association in 1836, Professor Nilsson recognised it as his _H. griseus_, the same animal described by Fabricius in 1790. On the British coasts it breeds in October and November, though Nilsson asserts that on the Swedish coasts it breeds in February, a contradiction hitherto not clearly explained. A male and female from Wales were exhibited in the Zoological Gardens in 1871, and Mr. Bartlett particularly noted that it was both greedy and savage as compared with the other Seals under his charge. This accords with Mr. Ball’s account, who found it insusceptible of domestication; this he attributed to its small brain relatively to the other Seals. At the mouth of a cave at Howth he was fortunate in harpooning one. Some state that they are solitary in their habits, others that they associate in pairs, and still others that they congregate in groups of ten or a dozen. At all events, they select such remote and unfrequented situations that it is no very easy matter to follow them. They are not so lively, watchful, or timid as the Common Seal. Those of the county Galway are said to utter most dismal howls in chorus. Their young they leave on the exposed barren rocks, and suckle them every tide for the space of a fortnight. When born, they are of a dull yellowish-white, in a few weeks becoming darker, and by degrees gaining their greyish coat. Under the name of Black Seal, probably this species, an animal (besides the Common Seal) occasionally frequents the Bay of St. Andrews and the Tay mouth, where it is very destructive to fish and nets.

THE MONK SEAL.[224]--Who has not heard or seen something of the “wonderful learned talking fish,” if only from placard or fanciful sketch hung outside the showman’s caravan, with the occasional attractive announcement that “the amphibious creature has the sense of hearing in its nostrils, and fins bearing the impression of five fingers?” A visit soon dispels the illusion, as the imploring look of a hungry but bright-eyed Seal in a tub of water greets the sight. These “talking fish” generally belong to this species, and have often been exhibited in Britain and on the Continent. A full-grown animal reaches between seven and eight feet long, and upwards. It is dark-brown mixed with grey above, and whitish below, and has short hair and small claws. It entirely differs from all the preceding in being confined to the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and the African coasts neighbouring Madeira and the Canaries. Buffon’s classic description of the White-bellied Seal refers to this species, and Pennant names it the Pied Seal. Its geographical limits are as above stated, unless it be the same as a Seal from Jamaica, which Gray terms _M. tropicalis_, in which case it would traverse the Atlantic, a fact that is more than doubtful. Their mild disposition and teachable nature have led to their frequent exhibition. They go through many tricks, utter sounds construed into speech, present the fore-paw to “shake hands,” kiss the visitor when desired, obey other trifling commands, and allow themselves to be freely handled. Little is known as to its times of breeding and rearing of young, though its habits in a state of nature are believed to be very similar to those of the Seal tribe generally.

THE CRESTED, OR BLADDER-NOSE SEAL.[225]--The geographical range of this animal agrees best with that of the Common Seal, that is, it sweeps along the North American coast from Florida right up into Baffin’s Bay, thence to the south coasts of Greenland, across the North Atlantic, skirting Britain and Scandinavia, to Spitzbergen. Named from the remarkable prominence of the front upper-part of the head, this is one of the largest and most powerful of the Northern Seals. Certainly it is the fiercest and most dangerous, as the Eskimo know to their cost in attacking it from their kayaks. It does not hesitate to return an assault, and the crest, it is said, affords some protection from wounds inflicted by the club. These brutes fight ferociously among themselves, and the roaring during such ice-battles, in the still Arctic regions, is said to be audible four miles off. The so-called crest, hood, or bladder, is in reality nothing of the sort, but only a peculiar enlargement of the nasal passages, more particularly developed in the old animals of both sexes. The configuration of the head of this creature is hemispherical, and proportionally broad and short. The bony parts of the snout, and the cartilaginous septum of the nose and nostrils generally, are so formed as to allow great dilatation of these parts. That is to say, the two passages of the nostrils are, in the full-grown animal, exceedingly capacious fleshy tunnels. From youth onwards, this region acquires prominence, and, partly through habit and growth of the structures in later life, the animal when roused inflates, by compression of the muscles of upper-lip and nose, the cavities in question, so much so as to produce the expansion on the forehead which has given rise to its specific _soubriquet_. All engravings, even our own, represent this structure as reaching farther back on the head than the absolute anatomical conformation of the parts warrants, but in the live animal the skin of the head rearwards to some extent swells in unison with the puffed nostril, and hence to a certain degree simulates a hood or crest. Some sealers regard the so-called bladder as an air reservoir for buoyancy, an idea totally at variance with its true nature. The teeth of this genus are peculiar, the incisors being fewer in number. The formula is--Incisors, (2-2)/(1-1); canines, (1-1)/(1-1); premolars, (4-4)/(4-4); molars, (1-1)/(1-1) = 30. From eight to twelve feet in length has been given as the limits of size it obtains. The young are pure white; when a year old they become greyish, and the hue deepens, becoming deep chestnut and black above, though the lighter shade is retained on the under parts; chiefly on the back are black spots and rings of white. The muzzle is hairy, and the hair on the rest of the body long, with thick soft under-wool. It visits Greenland in May and June, leaves in July, and again returns in August and September. Fabricius states that they are polygamous. This animal is one which the sealers hunt, it frequenting the outside of the ice-packs. Rink estimates the average annual catch in Greenland at 3,000. An individual will yield 120 lbs. of blubber, and as much as 200 lbs. of flesh.

THE ELEPHANT SEAL.[226]--This creature, like the last, has a peculiar geographical range, but is unique, inasmuch as it is found north and south of the equator. It should, however, be stated that Dr. Gill has designated the northern form by a separate name (_Macrorhinus angustirostris_), though the distinctive characters have as yet not been substantiated by other naturalists. Meantime, we may be justified in regarding them as one form. It existed formerly in numbers on the Californian coast. But it is best known as frequenting, during the beginning of this century, such islands as Juan Fernandez, the Falklands, New Georgia, South Shetlands, Tristan d’Acunha, Kerguelen’s Land, and, indeed, several of the islands scattered in the Antarctic Ocean. In the young and females, the characteristic feature, or so-called proboscis, is deficient, but in the old males it extends quite a foot beyond the angle of the mouth, and hence the name of Elephant Seal. The females are nine or ten feet, the males fourteen, sixteen, and even twenty feet in length. The colour varies with age from brown to leaden-grey. It seems that they bring forth their young at different seasons in the southern and northern latitudes, in the latter about May or June, in the former somewhat earlier. Accounts differ as to its food, some saying cuttle-fish and seaweed are its principal nutriment.

Lord Anson, Captain Cook, and M. Péron, each give accounts respecting its extraordinary abundance in southern regions, but their numbers have since been decimated. Captain Scammon describes them as crawling out of the surf towards the ravines half a mile distant from the water, where they congregated in hundreds. Unless when excited, their movement on land is slower than that of the ordinary Seals, but they ascend broken elevated ground fifty or sixty feet above the sea. He says that when sailors are destitute of tobacco-pipes, they hollow its short canine teeth into bowls and use the quills of the Pelican for shanks. Their hunting in Desolation and Herd’s Islands is a most exposed and solitary pursuit. The ship is manned with a double crew, and some of the men are landed on the dangerous, ever-stormy coasts of these islands. Food and necessaries are provided, and rude shanties erected of rough boards, tarred canvas, and pieces of lava-rock. In this dank habitation, planted between an iceberg on the one side and a bluff volcanic mountain on the other, they are left to hunt as best they can, in a climate windy, rainy, cold, and often snowy. Nevertheless, undergoing hardships and privations of no common kind, excitement and prospect of gain compensate for their fatigues and temporary banishment. By the flickerings of a murky oil lamp, and fat and coal diffusing heat, these reckless adventurers pass the long, dreary, cold, evenings in card-playing and boisterous fun. Sea Elephants’ tongues and water-fowl are gladly intermingled with coarser fare. The men divide themselves into groups, and scour the coast in all directions, killing such numbers as fall in their way. They either transport the blubber and skins to their stores, or bury it for a time until opportunity of its removal is afforded. Afterwards it is placed in casks, and these are rolled by the gangs to the beach, when their vessel arrives. The casks are then launched into the surf, pulled through the rollers by the boats to the ship, where they are duly stowed. In the Californian district, the skin of the animal is ripped up along the back and reflected; the blubber is cut into “_horse pieces_,” about a foot square, and a hole made through which a rope is passed. The pieces are again strung on a raft-rope, a line is made fast to this, when they are dragged through the breakers to the small boat, and towed to the vessel. On board, large pots set in a brick furnace are ready prepared, where the blubber is rendered, the oil extracted being very superior for lubricating purposes. In these voyages the crews, unlike the Dundee fishers, hunt both Seals and Whales at the same time, the Americans having quite a monopoly of this special trade.

ROSS’S LARGE-EYED SEAL.[227]--In the voyage of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ to the Antarctic regions, 1839-43, there was obtained a Seal named after the commander of the Expedition. Little or nothing is recorded of its special habitat and habits, the main peculiarities resting in its skeleton. The stuffed skin, now in the British Museum, is of a greenish-yellow colour, with close, oblique, yellow stripes on the side, pale beneath, and the fur is close-set and rigid. The skull is broad, with great orbits. This genus has six molar teeth on each side of the upper and five on each side of the lower jaw. The canines are of very moderate dimensions, and the teeth, as a whole, are relatively small. Its specific name is derived from its great eyes.

THE SEA LEOPARD.[228]--Under the names Sea Leopard and Leopard Seal, indiscriminately used by the sailors or Southern sealers, two animals, apparently distinct, have evidently been confounded by them as well as by naturalists. Indeed, another seemingly totally different animal of the North Pacific has also been named Leopard Seal by Scammon. That to which the title Sea Leopard appears most applicable is what De Blainville and others called the Small-nailed Seal (_Phoca leptonyx_), and F. Cuvier the Narrow-muzzled Seal (_Stenorhynchus leptonyx_). Its precise distribution is uncertain, but it has been found on the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, Falkland, Campbell, Auckland, and Lord Howe’s Islands, and the Antarctic Ocean (on pack-ice). It may possibly be met with elsewhere, but the foregoing are authenticated localities. Mr. A. W. Scott describes male and female stuffed specimens in the Sydney Museum. The old male measures twelve feet in length; the glossy spotted skin is of a light silvery grey, with pale yellowish-white in patches, brought into relief by black-grey shading; its back and sides are darker, and belly lighter. The younger but adult female is seven feet long. Her colour above is darkish-grey, almost black in the middle line, intermixed by narrow markings of darker hue, and of yellowish-white, and the under parts without spots and also yellowish-white. A specimen kept alive for several days at Port Jackson had a long muzzle, a long thin neck, and in its habits generally it resembled the Seal tribe. Dr. George Bennett killed a male in Shoalhaven River (August, 1859), several miles above salt-water reach, which had a water-mole in its stomach. Dr. Knox states that those he examined in New Zealand contained in their stomachs fish-bones, gulls’ feathers, and seaweeds. Captain Musgrave, in his forced residence on the Aucklands, already referred to, alludes to this animal as the Black Seal, and describes a fight between one and a Sea Lion (_Otaria_); the flesh, he says, is rank. So far as his observations go, they remain at these islands pretty nearly all the year round, but others think that they occasionally migrate, or, at least, at certain seasons less frequently approach the land. The skull is remarkably elongated; the double-rooted molar teeth are compressed and serrate, or have a three-lobed crown, the middle being the longest. This animal has but four incisors above and four below, and the canines are of moderate dimensions. The nails on the hind feet are almost absent.

WEDDELL’S SEAL.[229]--A couple of stuffed specimens and a few skulls of this Seal in the British Museum, and a stuffed specimen in Edinburgh, are the sole material on which this species is founded. Dr. R. Hamilton, in the “Naturalist’s Library,” described the latter as the Leopard Seal (_Phoca leopardina_, Jameson). Captain Weddell had brought it from the Southern Orkneys, and, according to him, during life the animal is pale greyish above, yellowish beneath, and the back spotted with pale white. Dr. Gray mentions the London male specimen as fulvous, with a blackish-grey line down the back, the female and young corresponding to Captain Weddell’s description. The distinction between this and the last species is barely appreciable from their external coat, such differences as exist being in the skull. Weddell’s Seal, or, as Gray names it, the False Sea Leopard (_Leptonyx Weddellii_), has a relatively shorter and broader skull, fuller in the brain-pan, largish orbits, and a weak lower jaw. The molars are not tri-cusped; the front one in each jaw is single-rooted, and the rest double-rooted. The Antarctic Expedition brought home skulls, and skins and skulls were afterwards obtained by Captain Fitzroy, R.N., from the River Santa Cruz, Patagonia. Neither they nor Weddell give us any information respecting the life-habits of this animal. It will thus be seen that its geographical area, and especially its geographical relations towards the previous species, are at present uncertain. On account of the peculiarities of cranium and dentition, Gray forms it into a separate genus.

THE CRAB-EATING SEAL, OR SAW-TOOTH STERRINCK OF OWEN.[230]--The interest in this creature lies probably not so much in the nature of its food as in the greater saw-like character of its molars, which strongly resemble those of the fossil Zeuglodon, an animal of the Whale tribe. The Crab-eating Seal inhabits an undefined area of the Antarctic Seas. Above it is of a nearly uniform olive colour, below and the sides of the face yellowish-white, and there are a few often confluent spots of a light colour on the flanks. The five-toed fore feet, whose wrist is said to be very short, are clawed, but the hind ones are clawless. In number, the teeth agree with the Sea Leopard’s; though the first, second, and third front upper and the first front lower molars are single-rooted, the rest double-rooted. Moreover, nearly all the molar teeth have two or three cusps behind the middle strong conical lobe, while in front there is usually only a single small conical elevation. Thus the hinder border of these molars is considerably more saw-like than in the Sea Leopard. It differs also from the latter both in the lower jaw and upper parts of the cranium, but more particularly in the nasal and facial regions. Little is known with regard to its life-history.

* * * * *

The last three Seals some have considered under three distinct generic names, for reasons already given. If importance be attached to the dentition, this separation is allowable; but on the other hand there are considerable resemblances which others regard as only of specific weight. The generic term _Stenorhynchus_, first used by F. Cuvier in 1824 for the so-called Sea Leopard, and which has been at times indiscriminately applied by different naturalists to all three animals with multi-serrate crowned teeth, but here partially restricted to the first two, is a name well known and still applicable to one or other. Nevertheless, Lamarck, in 1819, had designated a genus of Crabs _Stenorhynchus_, universally accepted, and also in current use up to the present time. Some confusion having thus occasionally resulted, Professor Peters drew attention to the awkwardness of the circumstance, and proposed that the term _Ogmorhinus_ should replace _Stenorhynchus_, as applied to the Seals; Lamarck’s name having priority being retained for the Crabs. This well exemplifies one among the many difficulties and cross-purposes incident to nomenclature, &c., of Natural History, where, in the vast array of names and facts presented, glaring discrepancies will arise, despite the constant revision of those devoted to its study.

* * * * *

Before closing this chapter, there is one subject which I believe deserves mention, however briefly. The enormous slaughter of the Seal tribe is a matter of serious consideration, if only in a mercantile spirit. Among the sealers, neither sex nor age is spared, and therefore at the present wholesale rate of destruction it is easy to foresee early comparative, if not absolute, extinction of the tribe. Nothing can be clearer than the fact that since the Americans in their Alaska territory have adopted the plan of killing a prescribed number annually of the young and male Seals only, in other words, of protecting the breeding females, the Fur Seals have shown no tendency to diminution, but rather an apparent increase. Nature has her limits, and the Seals have other enemies to contend with besides man. Yet the latter, taking advantage of the maternal affections, and with the aid of deadly firearms and the like, in a certain space of time commits more fatal havoc among them than all their other foes combined. Several persons have urged a close-time. The fact is there are great difficulties in the way of this, for even in well-protected British rivers and fisheries generally, Salmon and others of the finny tribe are caught at forbidden times, in spite of Acts of Parliament and other regulations. Who is to watch the sealers in far-off inhospitable climes? Certainly in the Northern sealing-grounds the departure of the ships could be made somewhat later, as has, indeed, to some extent been done, but of course at the risk of a diminished catch. In the long run beneficial results doubtless will follow. But the plan most applicable to both Northern and Southern Seal-capture would be the insistence of the simple rule of _sparing the breeding females whenever possible_. If our merchants at home would take the matter in hand, and, but for a few years, refuse to receive female skins, the sealers would be practically forced, and in fact find it to their benefit, to look to their interests from a more humane point of view.

JAMES MURIE.

ORDER CETACEA.--WHALES.

Whales--Vulgar Notions--Characteristics External and
Internal--Larynx--Tail--Skeleton--Classification--THE
TOOTHED WHALES--ZEUGLODONS--SQUALODONS--PHOCODONS--RIVER
DOLPHINS--SUSU, OR GANGETIC
DOLPHIN--Description--Habits--Teeth--INIA--PONTOPORIA--ZIPHIOID
WHALES--CUVIER’S WHALE--VAN BENEDEN’S WHALE--SOWERBY’S WHALE--NEW
ZEALAND BERARDIUS--BOTTLEHEAD, OR COMMON BEAKED WHALE--SPERM WHALES,
OR CACHALOTS--SPERM WHALE--Description--Range--Fishery--Incidents of
the Chase--Habits--Harpooned--Treatment of the Carcass--SHORT-HEADED
WHALE, OR SNUB-NOSED CACHALOT--DOLPHINS--CAAING, OR PILOT
WHALE--RISSO’S GRAMPUS--COMMON PORPOISE--KILLER WHALE, OR
ORCA--Ferocity--TRUE DOLPHINS--COMMON DOLPHIN--BOTTLE-NOSE
DOLPHIN--WHITE WHALE--NARWHAL--THE WHALEBONE
WHALES--Whalebone--GREENLAND, OR RIGHT WHALE--BISCAY WHALE--JAPAN
WHALE--CAPE WHALE--SOUTH PACIFIC WHALE--Description of the Greenland
Whale--Their Food and Mode of Feeding--Habits--Hunting--Treatment
of Carcass--HUMP-BACKED WHALES--FIN WHALES, OR RORQUALS--SIBBALD’S
RORQUAL--SULPHUR-BOTTOM WHALE--COMMON RORQUAL, OR RAZOR-BACK--LESSER
RORQUAL--Concluding Remarks.

_œ_, œsophagus, or gullet; _b_, bile duct; _i_, intestine; 1, 1*,
2, 3, 4, represent the various chambers, the arrows denoting the
direction food takes in passing onwards.]

(_After Leuret and Gratiolet._)]