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harp (seal)

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

a large grey seal, Phoca groenlandica, so called because of the harp-shaped markings on its back.

See: ragged jacket,turning harp,voyage seal

Quotations

1771

I had the fat of two harps melted, which produced eighteen gallon of oil.

1819

Five kinds of seals frequent these shores, namely, the common, the great, the rough, the hooded, the harp, and an obscure species, called by the Laplanders, fatuc vindac, with a round and a long snout bending like the proboscis of an elephant.

1901

The Harps are mild, civilized and gregarious.

1965

Off the north-east coast of Canada lives one of the most appealing of animals, the Harp seal.