Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/385

Rh antiquity, whilst Lieutenant Giffard, R.N., found and brought to the ship a portion of an antler which he picked up in lat. 82° 45' N. It does not appear that the 'Polaris' Expedition observed any trace of the Reindeer in Hall Land, neither was it obtained there by our Expedition.

Phoca hispida.—The Ringed Seal was met with in most of the bays we entered during our passage up and down Smith Sound. It was the only species seen north of Cape Union, and which penetrates into the Polar Sea. Lieutenant Aldrich, R.N., during his autumn sledging in 1875, noticed a single example in a pool of water near Cape Joseph Henry, and a party which I accompanied in September, 1875, secured one in Dumbell Harbour, some miles north of the winter-quarters of the 'Alert': its stomach contained remains of crustaceans and annelids. In June of the following year I observed three or four of these animals on the ice of Dumbell Harbour. They had made holes in the bay ice that had formed in this protected inlet. The Polar pack was at this time of the year still firmly wedged against the shores of Grinnell Land, and so tightly packed in Robeson Channel that no Seal could by any possibility have worked its way into this inlet from outside. I am therefore quite satisfied that Phoca hispida is resident throughout the year in the localities mentioned. A female killed on the 23rd August, 1876, weighed sixty-five pounds.

Phoca barbata.—On several occasions while proceeding up Smith Sound I observed this large Seal. We did not see it north of Robeson Channel. Individuals were procured in Discovery Bay, lat. 81° 44' N., and also at Thank God Harbour, from whence it has been recorded by Dr. Bessels. As previously mentioned, I found the skulls of this animal in the ancient Eskimo settlements of Smith Sound. On the 31st August, 1876, Hans, the Greenlander on board the 'Discovery,' shot one of these Seals in Dobbin Bay. I was informed that it weighed 510 lbs. On taking off its skin an Eskimo harpoon was found buried in the blubber on its back; the socket of the dart was made of ivory, the blade being wrought iron. Hans pronounced it to be a Greenland harpoon-head, and suggested that the animal had been struck in the Danish settlements. P. grœnlandica is recorded by Dr. Bessels from Thank God Harbour, but I did not observe it in Smith Sound or northwards.