Volume 23, Plate VIII / Mammalia (Mammals)

Rough or Bristled Seal

Phoca Hispidus

The Rough or Bristled Seal, smallest of the northern species, rarely exceeds four and a half feet, with a short round head and a coat of long coarse hairs over curly wool, bristled like a hog’s, mostly white with brownish blotches giving a grizzly silvery look. It haunts retired bays and coastal ice, feeds on small fish and especially lobsters, bears young in February, and is killed by thousands off West Greenland.