CHAP. XXXIV. SEAL-HUXTING. 213 



none are more exciting or perilous than the hunting of 

 seals on the ice-floes of the Atlantic or Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence. While the vessels are absent, the greatest 

 anxiety exists in the ports of departure, and the most 

 distressing rumours prevail at times. A full month some- 

 times elapses before the arrival of a single vessel, and 

 eveiy imaginable cause is assigned by alarmed families 

 and friends for the delay of tidings from the seahng- 

 grounds. 



North-east gales drive the ice towards the shore, and 

 frequently produce fearful disasters to both life and pro- 

 perty. In 1843 the loss of vessels was very considerable, 

 and several entire crews perished. Some vessels were 

 wrecked in 1849, and some in 1852. The year 1827 

 was uncommonly prosperous. Forty-one vessels laden 

 with seals arrived at St. John's in a single week. They 

 caught 69,814 of the objects of their search. One of 

 these vessels took upwards of 3,000 in six days, and 

 another, still more successful, about 3,500 in the same 

 time. The intense excitement which attended the slaug-liter 

 of such large numbers in so short a space can be readily 

 imagined.* 



The annual proceeds of the seal fishery are very p;reat : 

 Newfoundland alone exports, on an average, half a million 

 skins, besides nearly 3,000,000 gallons of oil, worth about 

 330,000/. The number of seal-skins exported from New- 

 foundland during the present century exceeds 20,000,000, 

 and in 1844, a favourable year, 685,530 were taken. 



The Indians on the Gulf coast feed on the harbour 



* Report on the Principal Fisheries of the American Seas, by Lorenzo 

 Sabine. 



