; 3 8 THE CARNIVORES 



The chief sealing trade in the North Pacific was the capture of the elephant- 

 seals on the Californian coast a trade which has of necessity come to an end by 

 the extermination of the object of pursuit. In the more southern seas the trade 

 was likewise confined to the capture of elephant-seals. From their great numerical 

 abundance and their large size, the pursuit of these animals was an extremely 

 lucrative occupation in the early years of this century. Now, however, as we have 

 seen, these seals are exterminated from most of their former haunts, and only re- 

 main in any numbers on Kerguelen and Heard's islands, where they would also long 

 since have disappeared had it not been for the inaccessible nature of the beaches 

 they frequent. Consequently, the southern sealing trade has now shrunk to an in- 

 appreciable fraction of its former volume, although there is a prospect of its being 

 revived in the neighborhood of the Antarctic pack ice. 



Of the various methods of capturing seals in the northern seas nota- 

 bly the oldest is that of harpooning from canoes, or kayaks, as now 

 practiced by the Eskimo. The kayak, which is made of skins, although upward 

 of eighteen feet in length, is so light as to be easily carried in the hand. In "seal- 

 ing ' ' the victim is approached within some twenty-five feet, when the harpoon 

 is hurled from a wooden "thrower." The harpoon, in addition to its line, is 

 furnished with a bladder attached by another cord, which marks the course 

 of the seal while below the water, and enables the hunter to follow its track 

 and wound it with his lance time after time as it comes to the surface to breathe, 

 until it is finally dispatched. The lance, it should be observed, is thrown from 

 the hand, and, after striking the seal, always detaches itself and floats on the 

 surface. 



A large number of seals are also captured in nets, this method being 

 chiefly employed during the spring and autumn visits of the migratory 

 species to the shore. Nets appear to have been in use longest in the Gulf of Both- 

 nia, the Caspian Sea, and Lake Baikal, where they are set either from the shore or 

 beneath the ice. In the Gulf of Bothnia such nets are from sixty to ninety feet in 

 length, and about six feet in depth. Two of them are generally set together in the 

 neighborhood of rocks to which the seals resort, and are always placed to the lee- 

 ward of the mainland or some headland. When they strike against the nets, the 

 seals thrust their heads through some of the meshes, and by twisting themselves 

 about gradually become completely involved. In the Caspain Sea the nets are 

 usually hung from boats at a considerable distance from the shore. In Lake 

 Baikal, on the other hand, the nets are let down through the breathing holes of the 

 seals in the ice, and the animals become entangled on rising. 



The seal-box used in parts of Scandinavia is a contrivance w r ith a 

 Seal-Box, etc. 



swinging plank, upon which, when the seal lands, it is precipitated 



headlong into a deep pit. Another Scandinavian plan is to surround a seal-rock 

 with a line armed with a number of barbed hooks. These hooks allow the seals to 

 land with impunity; but when a number of the animals are on the rock, and through 

 a sudden fright rush headlong into the water, some of them are pretty sure to be 

 caught. A third method employed in the same country is to fix a harpoon in a 

 tube, with a spring-and-trigger arrangement, and to bury the whole contrivance in a 



