SEALS.

There exists at present considerable confusion in the number of species and the classification of the northern seals. A scientific argument on classification is beyond the province of this report, and it need only be mentioned that, after careful inquiry from the Eskimos of Baffin island and Hudson bay, there is no doubt that, including the walrus, there are but six species of seals in the northern seas of eastern America, and that the other species named are simply due to varieties of age, size and colour.

The present account is confined to the distribution, habits and uses of these animals.

Callocephalus vitulinus, Linn.—The Harbour seal, Freshwater seal, or Ranger (Kassigiak, Eskimo), is common but not plentiful on all the coasts. It is found usually about the mouths of rivers, and in bays and fiords. It is also found in some of the larger lakes of Labrador and Baffin island. These lakes are often far inland and high above the present level of the sea, and there is no doubt that in a number of them the seals reside permanently. The young, unlike those of the other seals, are produced in July on the rocks about the banks of rivers.

The skins are prized by the natives owing to their fur-like character and beauty of colour. They are dressed with the hair on, and are chiefly used for women’s garments, fancy bags and for the boot-legs of dandies.

The flesh and blubber, especially of the older and larger freshwater seals, have a disagreeable odour and taste, and consequently are not so highly prized by the natives as are those of the following species.

Pagomys foetidus, Fab.—The Ringed seal, or Jar (Nietshik, Eskimo), is the common small seal of all the coasts.

The variations in size, markings and colour, due to age, have led to this seal being classed under several species.

Its flesh is the chief article of diet of the natives the year round, while its skin when dressed with the hair is used for clothing, tentings and bags; when dressed by removing the hair, it is used as covering for the kyak and for boot-legs. The blubber, burned in stone lamps, is the chief source of artificial heat.

The young are born in March in snow-houses scraped out by the female from a snow-bank, close to an air-hole on the ice. When born they have a glistening white coat of soft hair.

Pagophilus groenlandicus, Mull.—The Harp seal, Saddle-back, Bedlamiers, (Kirolik, Eskimo,) supplies fully two-thirds of the seals taken annually off the coasts of Newfoundland in the spring, when the females give birth to their young on the floating ice of the Arctic pack. The Harp seal is more or less common on the northern coasts, and southward along the Atlantic coast of Labrador, at all seasons. In Hudson strait they are rare in summer, but are not uncommon after the shore-ice forms in the autumn, and before it leaves in the early summer. These seals commonly travel in bands, and are known by their habit of frequently leaping from the water. They are rare in Hudson bay, especially during the summer season, and are only occasionally seen at other times.

The flesh and blubber are used by the natives for food and fuel. The skins are used mostly for tentings and boot-legs, and where the skin of the Ground seal is not available for boot-bottoms.

Phoco barbata, Fab.—The Bearded seal, Big seal, Ground seal, Square-flipper, (Oujuk, Eskimo,) is common on all the coasts, and is the most abundant seal at Cape Haven, and Cape Chidley on the eastern coast.

It brings forth its young, which are born near an opening in the shore-ice, about a month later than the Ringed seal. This seal is next in size to the walrus, and its capture always brings gladness to the Eskimos, providing, as it does, a large amount of meat and blubber, while from its hide is cut an exceedingly strong line used for dog-traces and other purposes. The dressed skin is used for the soles of boots, for covering kyaks and women’s boats, for tentings, and many other purposes. The flesh is coarser in texture, but less fishy in flavour, than that of the smaller seals. The liver is said to be somewhat poisonous, and is not often eaten.

Cystophera cristata, Erxl.—-The Hooded seal, or Bladder-nose, (Nietshivok, Eskimo,) is a large and ferocious seal, second in size only to the Big seal. It produces its young about two weeks later than the Harps, and usually on ice farther off the coast. These seals make up the remainder of the catch of the Newfoundland sealers. In the summer they are common at Ponds inlet, and become rarer along the coasts to the southward. The Hooded seal is unknown to the natives of Hudson bay, and is an exceedingly rare visitor in Hudson strait.

Trichechus rosmarus, Linn.—The walrus, (Aivik, Eskimo,) is found in all the northern waters, where it appears to prefer the presence of floating ice, and rarely or never comes out on the shore-ice. During the past voyage of the Neptune many walrus were seen; the most northern locality was at the entrance to Smith sound, where large numbers were congregated on pans of floating ice, between Etah and Cape Sabine. Numbers were seen along the coast of Ellesmere island and in the waters of Lancaster sound. The whalers and natives report them as very plentiful in Wellington channel. They are common along the coast of Baffin island, a considerable number being killed annually at the station at Cape Haven, and in Cumberland gulf. They are very numerous in Fox channel and Frozen strait, where they are captured while on the floating ice usually found in these localities throughout the summer. When the ice leaves Hudson bay and Hudson strait, the walrus resort to favourite localities, usually small rocky islands, where they are frequently found in large numbers. Such islands are located in King sound, near Douglas harbour, on the south side of the strait; at the west end of Charles island, also in the strait; at Walrus island in Fisher strait, and at several small islands of the Belcher and other outer islands of the east coast of Hudson bay.

When the St. Lawrence was discovered the walrus was found as far south as the Magdalen islands, and, within a comparatively recent time, they were common on the Atlantic coast of Labrador; now they are only killed rarely at Cape Chidley, the northern point of that coast. On Hudson bay they were formerly found as far south as Paint islands on the east side of James bay, but now they do not frequent that coast south of latitude 60° N., and their southern limit is about latitude 57° N., on the Belcher islands. There has been a rapid diminution in the number of walrus in the northern part of the bay during the past few years, since the Active has been engaged in their capture, and it is only a question of a few years, if the present methods of killing are continued, before the walrus will become as rare as the Right whale in the waters of Hudson bay. It is acknowledged that, with present methods of capture and the difficulties of the chase, only one in four or five of the animals killed is eventually secured. The walrus is necessary for the subsistence of the northern Eskimo and his dogs. The flesh is strong and sustaining, the blubber is abundant and good, while the tusks are of great use for shoeing sleds and the manufacture of spears and harpoons, and other hunting and domestic gear. The present value of the walrus to civilization is small. Oil is made from the blubber, and the skins are used chiefly for ‘buffing’ metal goods. The ivory of the tusks is inferior, and only worth about fifty cents a pound. The present price for hides is from eight to ten cents a pound, and consequently the entire products of a large walrus is under fifty dollars in value.

Taking into consideration the value of the animal to the native, the great waste of life in the killing, and the comparative small value to civilization, it might be well to pass regulations reserving this animal wholly for the use of the Eskimos.

The Launch.