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Show 438 MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. [Jlllie 25, of Europe and America ; and rare stragglers now and then land on the shores of Britain, though it is by no means a member of our fauna proper. This Seal is not common anywhere. On the shores of Greenland it is chiefly found beside large fields of ice, and comes to the coast, as was remarked by Fabricius long ago, at certain times of the year. They are chiefly found in South Greenland, though it is erroneous to say that they are exclusively confined to that section. I have seen them not uncommonly about Disco Bay, and have killed them in Melville Bay, in the most northerly portion of Baffin's Bay. They are principally killed in the district of Julianshaab, and then almost solely in the most southern part, on the outermost islands from about the 20th of M a y to the last of June ; but in this short time they supply a great portion of the food of the natives, and form a third of the colony's yearly production. In the beginning of July the Klapmyds leaves, but returns in August, when it is much emaciated. Then begins what the Danes in Greenland call the " magre klapmydsefangst," or the lean-Klapmyds catching, which lasts from three to four weeks. Very seldom is a Klapmyds to be got at other places, and especially at other times. The natives call a Klapmyds found single up a fjord by the name of " Neriniartout," the meaning of which is "gone after food." They regularly frequent some small islands not far from Julianshaab, where a good number are caught. After this, they go further north, but are lost sight of, and it is not known where they go to (Rink, I. c). Those seen in North Greenland are mere stragglers wandering from the herd, and are not a continuation of the migrating flocks. Johannes (a very knowing man of Jakobshavn) informed me that generally about the 12th of July a few are killed in Jakobshavn Bay (lat. 69° 13' N.). Economic value and hunt.-The Klapmyds yields, on the average, half a cask of blubber, and the dried meat of every Seal weighs about 24 Danish lbs.; but this is not the whole Seal, which weighs about 200 lbs. The yearly catch in Greenland (Danish) is about 2000 or 3000*. 5. Commercial Importance of the "Seal Fisheries." The Greenland (i. e. Spitzbergen) sealing fleet from the British ports meet about the end of February in Bressa Sound, off Lerwick, in Zetland ; it leaves for the north about the first week in March, and generally arrives at the ice in the early part of that month. The vessels then begin to make observations for the purpose of finding the locus of the Seals ; aud this they do by crawling along the edge of the ice, and occasionally penetrating as far as possible between 70° and 73° N. lat., then continue sailing about until they find them, which they generally do about the first week of April. If they do not get access to them, they remain until early in May, when, if they intend to pursue the whaling in the Spitzbergen sea that summer, they go north to about 74° N. lat. to the " old sealing," or, further still (even to 81° N.), to the whaling. Most of them, however, if not successful * Rink, /. c. |