366 LABRADOR 



south from Melville Sound and from even more northern 

 waters during November to February; at this season the 

 East Coast men set gill-nets for them. About the first 

 of March they bring forth their young on the ice-floes off 

 the coast, and also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as far as the 

 Magdalene Islands, and even Nova Scotia. For this they 

 herd together in tens of thousands on the floating ice, 

 which under ordinary circumstances should afford them 

 safety. But at this time when they are absolutely unable 

 to escape, the Newfoundlanders hunt them in large steamers, 

 and kill immense numbers of the babies by clubbing them. 

 From two hundred and fifty thousand to five hundred 

 thousand is the average number thus destroyed annually. 

 The babies are quite white, called " white-coats," and are 

 almost all born on the same day, and also take to the water 

 on the same day, three weeks later. The baby fur comes 

 off at this time. He is then called a " ragged-coat." The 

 fur of still-born babes does not come off, and the skins are 

 therefore more valuable and are called "cats." 



During these (generally three) weeks, the ice has been 

 drifting rapidly to the south. The mother seal has kept 

 a blow-hole open up through the ice near where she left 

 the baby, and through this she has been away fishing 

 every day. She gives such rich milk that her offspring 

 can be almost seen to grow. They are so fat that I have 

 seen them looking, in their ice cradles, like bladders full of 

 lard, as they lay on their backs in the hot sun, fanning 

 themselves with their flippers. The mother at last forces 

 the pup to take to the water, and a mysterious instinct at 

 once teaches him to "go north, young man." This he does 

 in leisurely fashion, and by the end of May these "beating 



