THE FISPIKItfES. 149 ' 



terror of mariners, si.iiliii<i majestiailly pa-t these sliores, ami 

 often grouudiiig along Lal)iad()r and in tlie 1>ays of Xewfound- 

 land — bring with tlieia tlie " slinie-iood" on whicli the almost 

 microscopic crustaceans live. These in tuin furnish food for tlio. 

 caplin, the squid and the hciiing whicli, with multitudes of other 

 forms, are devoured liy tlit- cod. Wlicu tin- end is assimilated 

 by man, this great circle of nature i> complete. So long then as 

 the Arctic cuirent flows the existence of the cod-tishery of New- 

 foundland is assured. 



For the natural history of the cod, its distribution, movements, 

 .spawning, modes of its capture ami cure, etc., the reader is re- 

 ferred to " Hatton and Harvey's Newfoundland — the 01de>t 

 British Colony." 



THK SKAL FISHEKV. 



Next to the i-od tishery tlie most valuable of tlie Newfoundland 

 fi.sheries is that of the seal. While the cod fi.shery has been pro- 

 secuted for almost four hundred years, the seal tishery is not 

 more than ninety years old. It would aii[)ear tliat the attention 

 of the people was so aljsorljed in capturing and curing cod that 

 they neglected the oleaginous treasures which the vast ice-fields 

 every year brought within their reach ; and the great seal-herds, 

 were left to bring forth their young amid the icy solitudes, un- 

 disturbed by the murderons gun, club and knife of tlie .seal 

 hunter. But this paradisaical condition of the seal was not to 

 la.st forever. The day at length came when the hunters forced 

 their way through the crystal I'amparts by which nature had so 

 long guarded these heli)les.s innocents. The nursery of countless 

 mother seals was ti-ansfornied into a slaughterhouse, red with the 

 blood of their murdered darlings, slain in their icy cradles ; and 

 it became a .scene of horror and deatli. Such is the seal hunt of 

 to-day, involving each year a vast destruction of old and young- 

 seal life for the benefit of man. 



EVOLUTION OF THE SEAL FISHERY. 



The value of the seal for human nses and the right method of 

 capturing it in these regions were slowly learnul. At first, seals 



