208 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. cuap. xxxiv. 



fathoms long, by 10 fathoms wide ; and several nets, 

 placed together as advantageously as possible for the 

 pm^pose of taking seals when they are migrating in herds 

 in the spring or in the autumn, form what the fishermen 

 call a set of nets. Some sets of nets in use on the Gulf 

 coasts are of great value, costing 1,200/. for cord alone, 

 and requiring numerous anchors and cables to keep them 

 in their proper places after they are set. 



The usual time for the seals to pass near the shore on 

 their migratory voyage being known, the nets are placed 

 in position a few days before. One of the fishermen is 

 posted as a watcher or sentry on a rock, a httle in advance 

 of the fishery, to give notice of the approach of herds of 

 seals ; and the moment there are any in the fishery, a signal 

 is given, and the fishermen hasten to raise, by means of 

 a capstan, the net sunk by leaden weights to the bottom 

 of the water at the entrance of the fishery. Witli this 

 they close the opening through which the seals made their 

 ingress ; and as soon as the seals are fairly imprisoned, the 

 fishermen jump into their boats and enter the fishery, 

 shouting and beating the water with their paddles, and 

 sometimes firing off guns. The frightened seals, trying to 

 escape, dive down and run their heads into the meshes, 

 which are kept always open by means of cables roiuid the 

 borders of the nets, hove taut by capstans. As soon as all 

 the seals are caught in the meshes, the men underrun the 

 nets, knock on the head with iron clubs those that are 

 not strangled, and carry them all on shore in their canoes.* 

 The autumn seal fishery takes place on the coast of 



* Captaiu Fortin, Official Report. 



