NEWFOUNDLAND IN THE 'SEVENTIES 199 



as many as he can drag, when he returns, towing 

 his load behind him, to the ship. The men work 

 with a will, giving themselves scarcely time to eat 

 or rest, for they receive a share of the profits 

 according to the number of seals that each man 

 brings in, and if the season is successful, an active 

 and daring man will make a large sum of money. 

 The seals are valuable only for the oil which is 

 tried out of their fat, and which is employed for 

 various lubricating purposes, and for their skins, 

 which are tanned and used principally, I believe, 

 for shoe leather. They do not produce the pelt 

 which, when plucked and dyed, is worked up into 

 those lovely sealskin jackets that are as destructive 

 to the purse as they are delightful to the eye. 

 The number of seals brought in annually is very 

 great, as many as 500,000 having been killed in a 

 single season, and the business employs nearly 

 10,000 men. What becomes of the multitude of 

 surviving seals is a problem I have never heard 

 satisfactorily solved. The ice, on which they 

 come down in swarms every year from the north, 

 melts during the summer months soon after 

 coming in contact with the warm waters of the 

 Gulf Stream. What then becomes of the seals ? 

 Do they find their way back through thousands 



