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Show 436 MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. [June 25, name, apparently learnt from the Dutch and German sailors). All of these words mean the " Seal with a cap on," and are derived from the Dutch, who style the frontal appendage of this species a mutz or cap, hence the Scotch mutch. This prominent characteristic of the Seal is also commemorated in various popular names certain writers have applied to it, such as Blas-Skdl (Bladder-Seal) by Nilsson (Skand. Faun. i. p. 312), Hooded Seal by Pennant (Synopsis, p. 342), Seal with a caul by Ellis (Hudson Bay, p. 134), in the French vernacular Phoque d capuchon, and in the sealers' name of Bladdernose, Neitersoak (Greenland), and Kakortak (when two years old). Descriptive remarks.-This is one of the largest Seals in Greenland, and in its adult state is at once distinguished by the curious bladder-like appendage to its forehead, which is connected with the nostrils and can be blown up at will *. This has been well described by Dr. Dekay in the * Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York,' vol. i.; and with his observations I perfectly agree. The eye of this Seal is large, and of a glassy black colour with a dark-brown iris. It has, like all the family, no external auricle; and the orifice of the ear is very small. The body is long and robust; its colour on the upper or dorsal aspect is dark chesnut or black, with a greater or less number of round or oval markings of a still deeper hue. The hair is long and somewhat erect, and the thick fur-like coating next the skin is often tinged with a reddish coppery colour. The head and flippers are of the same dark chesnut-colour. The pectoral and ventral regions are of the same dark-grey or tarnished-silvery hue which has been described in the P. grcenlandicus. Habits fyc.-The Bladdernose is not only one of the largest, but the fiercest of the northern Seals ; and as its capture requires some skill, it is only the most expert kayaker that can procure any. It will chase a man and bite him, besides making a great commotion in the water. Therefore the hunt is very dangerous to a man in such a frail craft as the Greenland kayak. Like all Seals, during the rutting-time, there are great battles on the ice between the males ; and the roaring is said to be sometimes so loud that it can be heard four miles off. The skin is often full of scratches from these fights; but as long as the memory of the oldest inhabitant of South Greenland extends, only one man in the district of Julians-haab (where they are chiefly captured) has been killed by the bite of the Klapmyds, though not unfrequently the harpoon and line have been broken. The hunting is not so dangerous, however, within late years, as it has been effected by the rifle from the ice; but when the Seal has not been killed outright, the hunter goes out in his kayak and despatches it with the lance. With regard to the favourite localities of this species of Seal, Crantz and the much more accurate Fabricius disagree-the former affirming that they are found mostly on great ice islands where they * It is often asserted by the sealers that this " bladder " is a sexual mark, and is not found on the female. I do not think there is any just ground for this belief. |
