The Dominion's credit has been allowed to 

 accumulate, and when a settlement is made, 

 which will probably be done at the end of the 

 present year, it is expected that Canada will 

 receive something like $800,000 as her share of 

 the catch since the opening of the season. 

 With the beneficial effect the protection of 

 the herd has had and is still experiencing, it is 

 predicted that in a few years Canada's revenue 

 from this source will be in the neighborhood 

 of SI, 000,000 per year. 



The Hair Seal 



All the year round, hair seals, which are 

 great roamers, have been in the habit of infesting 

 the Fraser River and the Gulf of Georgia, 

 inhabiting inaccessible flats, and by consuming 

 large quantities of fish already taken in nets, 

 have constituted themselves a general nuisance. 

 Various methods of combating this pest have 

 been tried unsuccessfully, and experimentation 

 is continuing, in the belief that a successful 

 method of trapping will not only terminate the 

 mischief these animals are doing but result in 

 the creation of a new and important industry 

 on the Pacific coast. 



The hair seal is valued partly for its hide, 

 which is used in making various kinds of leather, 

 for oil which is extracted from the carcass, and, 

 on the Pacific coast, for use in the manufacture 

 of fertilizer. The hair seal is a particularly 

 valuable animal at the present time, his hide 

 selling for as high as $175. A recent develop- 

 ment in the seal industry is the utilization of 

 the skins of old males, a hitherto unprofitable 

 section, which considerably enhances the value 

 of the seal catch to any country. Canada 

 draws revenue from seal fishery on both the 

 Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and the amounts 

 accruing from these is, at the present time, 

 naturally of gratifying porportions and will be 

 more so in the future. 



It has been computed roughly that one 

 million seal skins are marketed every year, and 

 to this aggregate the largest single collection 

 is contributed by the sealers of Newfoundland 

 operating on their own coast and off the shores 

 of Labrador. In the year 1919, Newfoundland's 

 share of the seal fishery accounted for 81,293 

 seals with a market value of $278,000. The 

 industry on the island accounts for the employ- 

 ment of 1,685 men, and numerous vessels take 

 part in the often hazardous undertaking. 



Newfoundland, the Pioneer 



The seal industry originated in Newfound- 

 land in 1763, and for some years after that the 

 annual catch did not exceed three or four 

 thousand skins per season. With the increasing 

 demand for oil and skins, however, the industry 

 grew, and more men and vessels came to engage 

 exclusively in it. By the beginning of the nine- 

 teenth century, the annual catch exceeded 

 60,000 skins, and larger and larger vessels were 



19 



built for the pursuit, till later these were super- 

 seded by fast steamers. At the present time, 

 though there are some sailing vessels still 

 engaged, the steamer is the big unit in the 

 activity and accounts for five-sixths of the catch. 

 Of late years the seal catch of Newfoundland 

 has fallen off somewhat, due to the heavy toll 

 and indiscriminate killing, which is now regu- 

 larized by legislation. The 1908 catch, for 

 instance, numbered 213,863 seals, and that of 

 the following year 269,320 animals. A single 

 vessel has been known to bring in to St. John's 

 a catch of 42,000, and a total of nearly 700,000 

 seals have been taken by the entire Newfound- 

 land fleet in a single season. 



A Novel Trapping Method 



A novel method of hunting seals, under the 

 auspices of the government of Newfoundland, 

 is to be introduced in the spring by two Nova 

 Scotia aviators, which, if successful, may revo- 

 lutionize the entire industry. The party of 

 three men, with two aeroplanes and dirigibles 

 of the type used so successfully during the war 

 to "spot" submarines, will sail from Montreal 

 early in January to join the Newfoundland 

 sealers at St. John's, the augmented party of 

 thirty-five or forty leaving for the Labrador 

 ice-fields. 



Hitherto the locating of seal herds has been 

 done by men in the rigging of ships whose 

 range of vision is naturally limited. This work 

 it is intended to do with planes, "spotting" 

 being possible by this means within a radius of 

 fifty miles. The method then is as follows. 

 The aeroplane, which carries five men besides 

 the pilot and mechanic, descends to the ice 

 where the animals are despatched by bullets 

 from machine guns. The skins are then packed 

 in bundles about the base of poles to which a 

 flag is attached. This kind of hunting con- 

 tinues to the end of the season when the ice 

 breaks up, the hunters proceeding from place 

 to place, transported by plane as new herds 

 are "spotted." At the close of the season the 

 vessels visit the ice-breaks and pick up the 

 bundles, being materially assisted by the planes 

 in locating and signalling. 



Close upon the announcement of the pro- 

 jected activities of these aviators, there arrived 

 in St. John's two "blimps," or war airships, a 

 present to Newfoundland from the Imperial 

 government. These it is intended to use in 

 the seal fisheries in the same manner, the cost 

 of operation, estimated at $60,000, being borne 

 jointly by the Newfoundland government and the 

 owners of the sealing vessels assisted in their catch. 



The co-operation of the government in this 

 new venture would augur a belief in the prac- 

 ticability and success of the novel enterprise, 

 and doubtless their success, which is highly 

 probable, will have a marked effect upon sealing 

 on both coasts and tend to bring about a revo- 

 lution in hunting methods. 



