408 AUDUBON 



and curious barnacles attached to it. Tiiey had struck 

 four whales, of which three had sunk and were lost ; this, 

 I was told, was a very rare occurrence. We found at this 

 place a French Canadian, a Seal-catcher, who gave me 

 the following information. This portion of Labrador is 

 free to any one to settle on, and he and another man had 

 erected a small cabin, have Seal-nets, and traps to catch 

 Foxes, and guns to shoot Bears and Wolves. They carry 

 their quarry to Quebec, receive fifty cents per gallon for 

 Seal oil, and from three to five guineas for Black and 

 Silver-Fox skins, and other furs in proportion. From 

 November till spring they kill Seals in great numbers. 

 Two thousand five hundred were killed by seventeen men 

 in three days ; this great feat was done with short sticks, 

 each Seal being killed with a single blow on the snout, 

 while resting on the edges of the field ice. The Seals are 

 carried to the camp on sledges drawn by Esquimaux dogs, 

 that arc so well trained that on reaching home they push 

 the Seals off the sledge with their noses, and return to the 

 hunters with despatch. (Remember, my Lucy, this is 

 hearsay.) At other times the Seals are driven into nets 

 one after another, until the poor animals become so ham- 

 pered and confined that, the gun being used, they are 

 easily and quickly despatched. He showed me a spot 

 within a few yards of his cabin where, last winter, he caught 

 six Silver-gray Foxes ; these had gone to Quebec with his 

 partner, who was daily expected. Bears and Caribous 

 abound during winter, as well as Wolves, Hares, and Porcu- 

 pines. The Hare (I suppose the Northern one) is brown 

 at this season, and white in winter ; the Wolves are mostly 

 of a dun color, very ferocious and daring. A pack of 

 about thirty followed a man to his cabin, and have more 

 than once killed his dogs at his very door. I was the 

 more surprised at this, as the dogs he had were as large 

 as any Wolves I have ever seen. These dogs are extremely 

 tractable ; so much so that, when harnessed to a sledge, the 



