22 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



or less abundant all along the coast, are carnivorous though very abste- 

 mious, and when caught rarely have anything in their stomachs ; rest 

 alone seems to fatten them. In February or March the mother drops 

 the young on the drift-ice, one, two, or rarely three at a birth. At first 

 they are about the size of a cat, and weigh 14 to 15 pounds. They arc 

 helpless and can get no food ; they suck the ice, and absolutely fatten 

 with no food. They remain thus helpless on the ice until they have 

 grown there on air to the weight of 70 pounds, when they take to the 

 water, cast their coats, and seek their own food." 



This remarkable statement is by one who for a long series of years 

 bunted seals for his living at La Tabatier and other places on the 

 Labrador coast. I am aware that this is in direct opposition to our gen- 

 erally received theories of the growth of these animals, but have great 

 confidence in Mr. Robertson's opinion, as he wrote from experience in an 

 establishment that has made seal hunting its business for the best part 

 of half a century. 



An adult harp seal weighs about 400 pounds, its pelt equaling about 

 5 gallons of oil in value. This species rarely occurs south of the Mag- 

 dalen Islands. They are migratory, appearing in herds in spring and 

 fall, generally near shore, at stated times, as regularly as the season 

 comes around. The farther north one goes generally the more abun- 

 dant they become. They appear in'vast numbers on the drift-ice, that 

 also holds their young, and both old and young are hunted by sealers 

 from Newfoundland and vicinity in spring upon the ice. Vessels are 

 fitted out for this purpose alone. In 1880 eight vessels secured 22,500 

 young seal within a few miles of the Newfoundland and Labrador 

 coast, most of which were of this species. They were taken during 

 the month of April. In 1881 the number was 30,000. The yield of oil 

 was from 4 to 5 gallons to each seal. The pelts averaged 80 cents 

 apiece. 



The migrations of these seal do not appear to be very clearly under- 

 stood. They pass southward in fall in small, increasing to large, herds ; 

 some winter in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, where they breed ; the 

 majority, however, seek the open ocean and return north to breed on 

 the drift-ice, which floats down loaded with them in April. In May 

 they return north again, but generally far out to sea, returning south 

 again in fall as before. In spring hunting the herd rarely gives the 

 hunter over one or two days ; in fall he has as many weeks. The ice 

 fishing occupies a different season of the year. 



The harp, as also the hood seal, feeds chiefly upon fish, and to a ter- 

 rible extent upon young cod, doubtless also herring. The migrations 

 of each of these animals must have a more or less connected origin, be 

 it climatic or what it may ; and it is a well-determined fact on the coast 

 that the abundance of one means rarity of the other. Those years 

 when a large "catch'' of cod occurs seal are scarce, and vice versa. Et 

 is a, well-established fact that the cod- fisheries of the cast coast of New- 



