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Show 424 MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GRKENLAND. [Julie 25, (4) PHOCA BARBATA, O. Fab. Callocephalus barbatus, F. Cuv. Phoca leporina, Lepech. ? Callocephalus leporinus, F. Cuv. Popular names.-Hafert skill (Swedish)* ; Ajne (Lapp) ; Ursuk (so written by Fab., but in north Greenland always pronounced oo-sook)f (Greenland). It is also called Takamugak; but I never heard the term applied; so that it must be rarely used. What the "great Seals" of Pennant and other authors are has yet to be investigated ; they were originally all set down to be this species, but are now generally supposed to belong to the Grey Seal (Halichcerus grypus). The skeleton in the Edinburgh museum at once decides that the Haaffish of Shetland and Orkney, which Dr. Fleming referred to P. barbata, belongs to the former species. The male is there called the " Bullfish." The Tapvaist of the western islands of Scotland appears also to belong to that species, H. grypus being a common Seal among the Hebrides. Descriptive remarks efc.-Next to the Walrus this is the largest species of the order found in the northern seas. Perhaps, however, 11. grypus may occasionally be found to equal it in size. Geographical distribution <$fc.-This species has been so often confounded with the Grey Seal (II. grypus) and the Saddleback (P. groenlandicus) in different stages and coats, that it is really very difficult to arrive at anything like a true knowledge of its distribution. In a note at the end of the notice of this species I shall have something to say regarding the probability of its identity with the Ground- Seal of the English Seal-hunters of the Spitzbergen sea. On the coast of Danish Greenland it is principally caught in the district of Julianshaab a little time before the Klapmyds. It is not, however, confined to South Greenland, but is found at the very head of Baffin's Bay, and up the sounds of Lancaster, Eclipse, &c. branching off from the latter sea. The Seals seen by the earlier navigators being nearly always referred in their accounts to either Phoca vitulina or P. groenlandicus renders it at present almost impossible to trace its western range ; it is, however, much rarer in the north than in the south of Davis's Strait. Accordingly the natives of the former region are obliged to buy the skin from the natives of the more southern settlements, as it is of the utmost value to them. This Seal comes with the pack-ice round Cape Farewell, and is only found on the coast in the spring. Unlike the other Seals, it has no atluk, but depends on broken places in the ice; it is generally found among loose broken ice and breaking-up floes. Economic value Spe.-This animal is of great importance to the Eskimo ; they cut the skin into long strips for harpoon-lines-a sine * Newton {I. c.) says that this is the Seal known to the Norse hunters about Spitzbergen as the Stor-kobbe (Great Seal), and less seldom Blaa-kobbe (the Blue Seal). t Oosook also means blubber. The name may possibly refer to the size or fatness of the animal, and mean " the big, fat Seal." |