438 CllUEL EXPEDIENTS. 



notice the shots, and it not unfrequently happens that a 

 large portion of them at least remain on the spot, in 

 which case the volley is repeated a second, or even a third 

 time. The firing having ceased, the hunters rush forward 

 to the " Lager," and with their clubs put not only the 

 wounded out of their misery, but mercilessly slaughter 

 the cubs ; for these, rather than take to the water before 

 the time appointed by nature (which, as regards the P. Gry- 

 piis, the chief object of pursuit, is, as said, not vmtil some 

 weeks after their birth), will lie perfectly quiet, and un- 

 resistingly allow themselves to be knocked on the head. 



Though many seals are thus usually killed at the 

 " Lager," still the larger portion of the drove, of the old 

 ones at least, generally contrive to reach the open water 

 in safety. Such of the females, however, as have left cubs 

 behind them, as also seals that were absent from the spot 

 when the onslaught took place, often, subsequently, show 

 themselves at the " Brunnai*," in which ease they are 

 either shot or transfixed with the harpoon. To induce- 

 the mothers to return to the open water, the hunters 

 resort to a most barbarous contrivance, viz., they affix a 

 living cub to the lowermost branch of a triangular hook, 

 attached to the end of a long line, and then lower it into 

 the " Bruun." The piteous cries and convulsive move- 

 ments of the poor tortured creature soon attract its dam 

 to the spot, and in lier affectionate solicitude to release her 

 progeny, she embraces it, and, as a consequence, is herself 

 impaled on the barbed iron, when both are brought up to 

 the surface together ! 



This cruel expedient, by which the cub is innocently 

 made to contribute to the destruction of its parent, is 

 adopted chiefly wdth the Grey Seal. Not, however, 

 from any feeling of compunction as regards other 

 species, but simply because the cub of the Marbled Seal 

 is not always procurable, and that of the Common Seal, 



