CHAP, xxxiv. HUNTING SEALS ON ICE-FLOES. 205 



soon found floating fields of ice converted into vast seal 

 ' meadows,' not far from Point JSTatasliquan, and in eight 

 days lie killed 600 seals. At tlie same time, and only a 

 few miles off, a brig from Newfoundland took 3,000. 

 When the Indians of the Lower St. Lawrence perceive 

 any seals reposing upon the fields of ice which winds and 

 tides bring into the estuary, they instantly launch their 

 canoes if the sea is not too rough, and endeavour to ap- 

 proach the ice-floe without alarming them. Sometimes 

 it happens that the excitement of the chase carries them 

 too far from land, and a breeze springing up bears them 

 rapidly away from the shore, and beyond all hope of 

 return. If not taken ofi* by a fishing schooner, they are 

 frequently lost ; but in calm weather they will venture 

 many miles from land in their frail bark canoes. 



In the winter of 1859 four men and two squaws set 

 out from Seven Islands Bay in pursuit of seals, which they 

 discerned on a floe of ice a couple of miles from the 

 coast. The day was calm, and the surface of the Gulf 

 almost without a ripple. In the distance dense clouds of 

 steaming mist rose from the warm waters into the cold 

 and biting winter air, some degrees below zero. But the 

 day was favourable for sport, and the Indians gleefully 

 paddled to the nearest floe. Breaking it, they dragged 

 their canoes quickly across, and paddled to the next floe, 

 and so on until they neared the one on which the herd of 

 seals were basking in the sun. They reached the floe, and 

 succeeded in kilhng several seals ; but on looking round, 

 they found to their horror that the floe of ice had noise- 

 lessly separated into two parts, and a lane of water about 

 fifteen or twenty feet broad akeady divided them from 



