THE OCEAN SEAL.

Ph. Oceanica.-LEPECHIN.

PLATE VII.*

Ph. Oceanica, Lepechin (Act. Petrop. 1777, t. i.) Desm. No. 373, De Blainville. Calocephalus Oceanicus, Less.

NOTWITHSTANDING the very high authorities now named, it is with much hesitation that we introduce the Ocean Seal as a distinct species. Baron Cuvier identifies it with the one immediately preceding, viz. the Greenland; but De Blainville, Desmarest, and Lesson, distinguish the two animals. Lepechin, the highest authority on the point we possess, has a thorough conviction that they differ; and he grounds this opinion not upon any variation in the dental apparatus, but chiefly upon the different markings of the young. He, at the same time, maintains that the one which Crantz describes as the Greenland Seal is identical with his. It is chiefly then from deference to these distinguished Zoologists that we give the Oceanica a distinct place in our enumeration; and we pay

this tribute the more willingly, as the description is carefully drawn up by an eminent Naturalist.

This animal, according to Lepechin, exactly resembles the Common Seal, and is distinguished from it only by its greater size, and the colour of its coat. The head is round, the mouth somewhat prominent and obtuse; the upper lip is tumid, thick, and marked with a furrow in the middle; it is longer than the under, which, in its turn, is somewhat more pointed. The number of teeth is as follows:-In the upper jaw there are four incisors, conically acute; the middle ones the smaller, those next the canines the stronger. The incisors in the under jaw are only four, and not so sharp.* Next to the incisors in both jaws is one canine, stronger and sharper, five lines long, and curved inwards; then there are six molars on each side of both jaws, three-pointed, the middle point being the longest and strongest. The teeth are so disposed, that when the animal shuts its mouth there is no interspace left, and the larger points of the upper teeth correspond with the smaller ones of the under ones, so that their prey, when caught, receive a deep wound with a single stroke. The tongue is cleft at the extremity, and furnished with rough papillæ, bent inwards. The eyes are large, and prominent; the iris is black, the pupil lucid; a sort of wrinkled skin, very firm and bare, supplies the place of eye

* There is evidently some mistake in this enumeration, whether typographical or otherwise we pretend not to decide. We give it as in the original.

lids; it has a membrana nictitans. The aperture of the ear is ovate, surrounded with puckered skin, so as to shut. The neck is robust, formed like a truncated cone, though not very distinct. The nails are black. The extreme toes on the hind feet are the largest, the middle one is the shortest, so that the foot is crescent-shaped. There are but two mammæ, and the dam has but one at a birth.

The colour of the head is an obscure chestnut, somewhat inclining to black. The rest of the body is a dull white, much the clearest on the belly. A great marking occurs across the shoulders, of the same colour with the head, which forks downwards on either side, and nearly meets again on the posterior part of the abdomen; it is somewhat in the form of a half-moon, and is more or less surrounded with irregular spots of the same colour: this precise colouring is always present. The young ones are, during the first year, of a clear ash colour on the back, lighter below, and are everywhere spotted with a few black spots of a round and oblong form. In the second year the ash colour becomes somewhat whiter; the spots become larger and more distinct, and hence they are called spotted. This colour the females preserve unchanged; but the males, as they advance in age, undergo a further change as stated above, and are hence named winged Seals.

These Seals love the colder parts of the sea; hence they only appear along the ice in the White Sea; and having, about the end of April, given

birth to their young, and reared them for some time, they disappear with the ice, in the great frozen ocean, leaving only the young ones, which remain till the ice which adheres to the shore is thawed, when they too follow the others. The fishers report that round Nova Zembla, where the ice abounds, some are to be seen at all seasons of the year.

This Seal, according to our author, is hunted for its skin and fat. The skins of the full grown are used as covers to writing desks, whilst those of the young are manufactured into hose, for they are very tenacious, and when properly prepared, they keep out wet better even than prepared calf-skin. The fat is very useful to curriers.

THE ROUGH OR BRISTLED SEAL.

Ph. Hispidus.-SCHREBER.

PLATE VIII.

SPECIFIC CHARACTERS.-Molars somewhat more simple than those of the vitulina; head more depressed; posterior margin of palate deeply notched.

Phoca Hispida, Schreb. Calocephalus Hispidus, F. Cuv. Ph. Fætida, Fab. Desm. No. 377, Neitsek Cr. Buff. Rough Seal, Pen.

THIS Seal, which has been long catalogued in the works of Systematists, seems to have been accurately defined and known, though to a considerable extent obscured by the confusion which involves the whole subject. After Crantz, it was next described by Fabricius with his usual accuracy and care, and his account was soon put into an English dress by Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, under the name of