ON SEALS AND SEALERS 169 



the settlers, their skins for boots and their fat for 

 oil are invaluable. 



In Labrador the "old harps" are caught either 

 in the fall or spring, when the sea is first freezing 

 over or the ice first breaking up, and always along 

 shore, in one of the following ways. Strong twine 

 nets, with very large meshes, are anchored out on the 

 bottom in about twenty to thirty fathoms of water, 

 off prominent headlands, or in the mouths of bays 

 and inlets known to be frequented by seals. These 

 are buoyed on the surface, and in these the seals 

 mesh and drown themselves. This industry is at- 

 tended with much danger and hardship, for it in- 

 volves rowing out in all weathers in small boats to 

 clear the nets. Sometimes the buoys are under the 

 ice, and the process known as " creeping " has to be 

 undertaken to find the nets at all, for it will not do 

 to lose these most valuable possessions. 



If the nets are not recovered by New Year's Day, 

 they are lost ; yet occasionally they may be re- 

 covered immediately the ice goes in April, when, 

 the men tell me, both nets and seals in them are 

 good ; but if much time elapses after the floe drifts 

 off, both rot rapidly and are destroyed by animal- 

 culae. 



Often hours must be spent "creeping," and then, 

 perhaps, only some one else's nets are taken, while all 

 the while each must be carefully watching the other 

 to see he is not getting frostbitten. The nose, ears, 

 or chin will become frozen unknown to the owner, 



