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Show 1868.J MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 437 sleep in an unguarded manner, while the latter states that they delight in the high seas, visiting the land in April, May, and June. This appears contradictory and confusing; but in reality both authors are right, though not in an exclusive sense. The hood appears to be an organ of defence from any stunning blow on the nose, the most vulnerable place in a Seal. It only inflates this " bladder " when irritated. The sealers look upon it as a reservoir of air when under the water*. The story which Fabricius relates about its " shedding tears abundantly" when surprised by the hunter is, I suspect, only an Eskimo tale of wonder. I could find no one credulous enough to believe it; nor during the whole time I passed among the seal-hunters of the far north did I find that any one esteemed my credulity great enough to venture any such story on me. It is affirmed, curiously enough, that the Bladdernose and the Saddleback are rarely or ever found together; they are said to disagree. At all events, the latter is generally found on the inside of the pack, while the former is on the outside. The latter* is also much more common than the Bladdernose. Procreation and young.-x\t first the young Bladdernose is pure white: during the first year, as it grows older and increases in size, a grey tinge appears; and gradually it assumes a deeper and deeper hue of the same colour. 1 cannot confirm the remarks of Otho Fabricius, that during the second year (when they are called Kakortak) they are snow-white, with a straight line of brown on their backs. Neither I nor any other Seal-hunter with whom I have talked ever saw such a Seal in the Greenland sea; and it appears to be equally unknown in Greenland. Mr. Tegner, who passed several years in a South-Greenland settlement, subsisting almost entirely by the catching of this Seal, informs m e that he never heard of such an animal. It is therefore just possible that Fabricius may have been mistaken, though the characteristic marks mentioned are so prominent that it is hardly probable that he could have been in error. In fact, the majority of the " Bladdernoses" which I have seen were about two or three years old, and appeared, by a slow and gradual change, becoming similar to the old and mature Seals, by turning darker and darker in their colours, and assuming the roundish oval markings, while at the same time they were increasing in size. This species seems to produce its young earlier than P. groenlandicus. Geographical distribution and migrations.-The Bladdernose is found all over the Greenland seas, from Iceland to Greenland and Spitzbergen, but chiefly in the more southern parts. The first Seals which we saw and killed on the making of the ice early in March 1861, were chiefly young "bladders" which had not yet got the hood-like appendage. It even finds its way to the temperate shores * Mr. J. Walker, Master of the screw-steamer ' Wildfire,' and one of the most intelligent of the whaling captains, assured m e (June 1861), from his own observation, that this Seal lies frequently on the top of elevated pieces of ice, and that the use of this hood, or " bladder," appears to be to raise it up with sufficient momentum to the surface (by filling it with air) so as to spring again on to the ice. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1868, No. XXIX. |
