METHODS OF CAPTURE SEAL-NETS. 527 



seen to cross the sunken net the top of it is immediately raised 

 to the surface of the water by means of a pulley, and so fast- 

 ened in that position ; the men then commence shouting and 

 firing off guns loaded only with powder, to keep the Seals 

 under water and cause them to ' mesh ' in the nets ; otherwise 

 they would spring over the nets and escape. When it is seen 

 that no Seals rise to the surface the men launch their boats into 

 the pound and take the Seals from the nets, most of them being 

 drowned, while the others have to be killed. 



"As soon as the Seals are got on shore the net is again sunk, 

 and the men, or others employed for the purpose, occupy them- 

 selves ' pelting,' or skinning, the Seals until another herd is 

 impounded. In a successful season as many as eighteen hun- 

 dred Seals have been captured in one of these frames."* 



In the Caspian Sea the nets, instead of being anchored to the 

 shore, are suspended from boats at a considerable distance from 

 land, as has already been fully described in the account of the 

 Caspian Sea Seal-hunting quoted from Schultz (antea, p. 516). 

 Lloyd also states that in Norway, in winter, when the sea is 

 frozen over, the seal-nets are set under the ice. " Small circu- 

 lar holes at stated intervals are first cut in the ice, and after- 

 wards the hauling lines attached to the net are passed, by means 

 of long and forked poles, from the one aperture to the other." t 



A similar use of nets in Seal-catching prevailed in Lake Baikal 

 a century and a quarter ago. Bell, writing in 17G2, describes 

 the process as follows : " The seals are generally caught in 

 winter, by strong nets hung under the ice. The method they 

 use is, to cut many holes in the ice, at certain distances from 

 one another, so that the fishermen can, with long poles, stretch 

 their nets from one hole to another, and thus continue them to 

 any distance. The seals not being able to bear long confine- 

 ment under the ice, for want of air, seek these holes for relief, 

 and thus- entangle themselves in the nets. These creatures, 

 indeed commonly make many holes for themselves, at the set- 

 ting in of the frost." $ 



According to Dybowski, nets are still employed for the cap- 

 ture of Seals beneath the ice in Lake Baikal, but apparently in 

 a somewhat different manner. He states that strong nets, 



* Zoologist, 2d Ser., vol. vi, p. 2542. 



t The Game Birds and Wild Fowl of Sweden and Norway, p. 423. 



t John Bell, Travels from Saint Petersburg in Russia to various parts of 

 Asia, vol. i (Edinburg ed. of 1788), p. 320. (An earlier Glasgow edition was 

 published in 1763.) 



