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Show 1868.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 425 qud non of every kayak. Out of every hide can be got four or five lines; and these are cut in a circular form off the animal before it is skinned; after this the lines are dried. These allunaks are very strong, and are applied to all sorts of purposes in Greenland travelling. The blubber is more delicate in taste than any other, and is accordingly more prized as a culinary dainty, when such can be afforded. There are only from 400 to 600 caught annually (Rink, I. ci). Talking with Spitzbergen sealers, I used to hear much about the " Ground-Seal," which formed a part of their prey. I was, however, unfortunate enough not to meet with a specimen, the spring of my visit to those seas being what is called " a bad sealing-year;" and subsequently during my various voyagings in Davis's Straits and Baffin's Bay I failed to find one which could be pronounced to be the "Ground-Seal" of the Seal-hunters. I find, again, among Dr. Wallace's notes, very particular mention made of this species ; and he seems to consider it distinct from all other species found in the Northern seas, and distinguishes it by the M S . name of Phoca grcenlandica major. It does not appear that he was acquainted with P. barbata; or, at least, it is not mentioned among his otherwise exact memoranda. What I learned regarding it agrees very closely with what he has said about it; I therefore will quote from his manuscript verbatim: - "Phoca grcenlandica major. It is the 'Ground-Seal' of the sealers. Like the last-mentioned species [Pagomys fcetidus'] few of them are taken by the sealers; and they are mostly seen by the Spitzbergen whalers in high latitudes, especially from the parallel of 76° N . lat. as far as Spitzbergen itself. The length of the male is about eight feet, and the female upwards of six feet. The colour and peculiar markings of the male very much resemble those of the male Saddleback ; but in appearance it is more robust and of greater girth for its length, while upon the whole the shade of its colour is darker and yellowish, or coppery colour, more distinct. The full-grown female also, to a certain extent, corresponds to the female Saddleback, but with her colour of a deeper tawny yellow. Two females which I saw killed had still the dark-chestnut hue on the back which characterizes the younger Seals, but in addition had the peculiar round and oval spots of a still deeper shade impressed on a yellowish ground; it seems probable that they were in a transition stage in regard to colour, and that the tawny yellow would gradually gain predominance as they advanced in age towards maturity. Lepechin describes a Seal which frequents the White and Spitzbergen seas which bears a great resemblance to the female of this species; in fact his description of the Phoca leporina, or ** Hare of the Sea' of the Russians, almost identifies it with the Ground-Seal (female). The habits of the P. grcenlandica major and the localities it frequents very clearly differ from those of P. grcenlandica, Miill., which, as above mentioned, with the exception of size, it so much resembles. Its most common retreat is on the floe and fixed ice. I have seen herds, numbering upwards of two or three hundred, lying at their ease close besides their ' blow-holes,' down which they would immediately |