CHAP. vin. SEALS AND SEA-LIONS. 121 



that hideous state, since, when the first blow fails to kill 

 the seal, their hard-hearted murderers " cannot stop to 

 give them a second." 



No doubt things are better now than they were nearly 

 fifty years ago when Professor Jukes wrote. The pocket 

 more sensitive by far than the heart has been touched. 

 The barbarous custom of shooting the mother seals when 

 they came ashore to suckle their young, and thus leaving 

 the poor little orphans to die by thousands of starvation 

 on the ice, has brought its own reward. The herds were 

 diminished to one-twentieth part of their former size. 

 Now, thank God, a close season has been established by 

 international treaty. 



I have dealt enough (unwillingly, too, believe me !) in 

 horrors, and will spare the reader any description of the 

 manner in which the drove of fur seals that I described 

 above is finally butchered. Let us hope that the blow of 

 the heavy club is generally fatal at once. 



The skins are salted and sent to England. Very 

 different do they look from my lady's dyed fur mantle ; 

 for the soft, rich, curly under-fur is hidden by the outer 

 coat of longer hairs. These are embedded more deeply 

 in the skin than the short fur, and by shaving and 

 scraping away the under surface of the skin their roots 

 are cut, and they readily come out. The curly under-fur 

 is then displayed. It has not the rich brown tint we 

 know so well this is given by the dyer's art. And 

 sometimes I am wont to fancy that the fur is dyed in 

 the poor creatures' own warm blood. But this of course 

 is only a foolish dream. 



