20] 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



THE SEAL FISHERY. 



Excitement of the Seal Fishery — Migrations of the Seal — Habits 

 of the Seal — Capabilities of the Seal — The Harbour Seal — 

 Cause of Wars between the Montagnais and Esquimaux — Seal- 

 fishing off Natashquan — An Indian Seal Hunt — Perils of the Chase 



— The Frozen Himters — The Lost Acadians — Seal Nets — The 

 Seal Watcher — A Stationaiy Seal Fishery — The Autumn Fishing 

 — Anchor Ice — The Phenomena of Anchor Ice in the St. Lawrence 

 and other Canadian Rivers — The Spring Fishing — Pale Seal Oil 



— Seal-hunting in the Atlantic — Great Value of the Newfound- 

 land Seal Fishery — Value of the Seal to the Esquimaux. 



THE fishermen and Indians who live on the coasts of 

 the gulf or estuary of the St. Lawrence, and on the 

 shores of Newfoundland, watch for the coming of the seals 

 in November and December with as much anxiety as the 

 Swampy Crees of Hudson's Bay or the Nasquapees of 

 Ungava listen for the first note of the Canada goose. 

 Although the chase of this marine wolf is attended with 

 incredible dangers, it is so remunerative and so exciting 

 during the dull monotony of winter, that great numbers 

 engage in it every year. But while many earn a com- 

 fortable hvehhood, and a few make their fortunes, not 

 a season passes without claiming its victims on the 

 illimitable ice-floes, which carry them far away from land 

 to suffer a hngering death by exposure and starvation. 

 Some are "wrecked amidst tlie vast ghstening fields which 



