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Show 406 MR. R. B R O W N ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. [June 25, into the seas between Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen; that year, however, proved a partial failure, and we returned to England by the end of April, leaving immediately for Baffin's, on which voyage I also accompanied her. Dr. John Wallace, now of the Hudson's Bay Company's Service, during the previous year also made a similar voyage, but was fortunate enough to enjoy better opportunities of observing the habits of Seals than I did ; for at the period when I left for Davis's Strait, he remained behind, and passed the whole summer in the sea between Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen, and the east coast of Greenland. On my arrival in England he put into my hands an excellent series of notes on these species of animals, part of which I communicated to the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh in 1862, and of which an abstract was published in their ** Proceedings' for that year. At that time, having some intention of preparing a more extensive work, I reserved m y own observations and a great portion of Dr. Wallace's until such time as this might be matured; besides, there were innumerable points in the history of the Seals which I was desirous of investigating before putting any of our observations before the world. However, shortly after this I left on a very long scientific journey, far from the scene of our former studies, and for more than four years the whole subject was laid aside. In the summer of 1867 I again found myself a sojourner as far north as 70° N. lat., in Danish Greenland. During this time I made a very extensive collection of the skeletons, skulls, &c. of these and other animals, besides adding to and correcting some of m y former observations. That osteological collection is not yet examined; but this is the less important, because, so far as I was able to judge during the hasty examination it was possible to give them during the process of preservation, there are no new species among them. Moreover the craniological characteristics of the northern Pinnipedia, thanks to the labours of Nilsson, George and Frederick Cuvier, Blainville, Gray, Gaimard, Lilljeborg, and others, are now very satisfactorily determined ; and what points are still sub judice can easily be settled by an appeal to the collections already in our Museum, and to the one formed by me when it is made accessible to science. These notes are still very imperfect; but as m y stay in England is uncertain, I think it only right, if they are of any value at all, that they should be published, reserving to myself the hope that at some future day I may be enabled to present a more complete monograph of the Pinnipedia. In the following notes are combined most of m y own observations with selections from those of Dr. Wallace (distinguished by his name within parentheses when I have been unable to confirm the observation); and to keep up the continuity of remark I have been compelled to occasionally repeat the substance of a portion of the abstract formerly referred to*. As this, however, has been misunderstood, I think that this partial review will not be objected to, especially as it merely consists of a few paragraphs. The remarks on the species are prefaced by some general observations on * Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, 1862, p. 312. |