G38 



SEAL. 



basin which lies between these islands and Beh- 

 ring's Strait, the seals assemble in vast mul- 

 titudes ; while those of the North Atlantic seek 

 both the shores of the northern islands and the bor- 

 ders of the ice. 



When they resort to the land there are some dif- 

 ferences of habit among them, especially among those 

 of the south. Some resort to the open sandy beaches ; 

 others to the rocks which are surrounded by the 

 water, and others again to the coarse herbage which 

 often extends to the margin of the water. Fishes are 

 understood to form the principal food of all the spe- 

 cies ; but they also eat polypi and other floating 

 animals, and even sea-birds, such as terns, petrels, 

 and the smaller gulls, which are usually very plen- 

 tiful in the great haunts of the seals, and resort to 

 them for nearly the same purpose as the seals do ; 

 only they eat the smaller fishes, while the seals pre- 

 fer the larger ones. 



Seals are not easily killed by means of cutting 

 instruments ; for though the wounds bleed copiously, 

 the labour of killing them in this way is great, unless 

 some of the more vital parts are wounded. But the 

 great development of the brain renders them much 

 more vulnerable in the head than in any other part ; 

 and the quickest way of despatching them is by 

 beating them on the head with heavy clubs. This is 

 extensively done by the seal-fishers at Jan Mayen, 

 where the animals are found in such numbers, that 

 the men can knock them on the head till they are ab- 

 solutely wearied with the slaughter ; and in the best 

 time of the season they very speedily fill a boat, or 

 even a ship with a valuable cargo. The seal-fishing 

 commences earlier in the season than the whale- 

 fishing ; and when the fishing vessels that resort to 

 " Old Greenland," that is, to the vicinity of Spits- 

 bergen, arrive too early, they bear away to Jan 

 Mayen for the seal-fishing. Sometimes the " seal 

 dub" is exercised to no small advantage on the ca- 

 verned shores in the north of Britain. These caves 

 penetrate to such distances into the rock, that they 

 are quite dark for a considerable way. The seals 

 resort there to take their siesta ; and the people 

 watch their time, enter the cave with torches and 

 clubs, and the seals, alarmed and nearly blinded by the 

 glare of the torches, become an easy prey. There 

 is of course a great deal of scrambling on these occa- 

 sions ; men and seals rolling over each other on the 

 slippery stones ; and sometimes a seal will wrest a 

 club from the owner, and bear it off in triumph to the 

 water. 



In early times, when navigation consisted of little 

 more than coasting and crossing the narrow seas, the 

 seals, as well as the Cctacea, were far more numerous 

 than they are at present ; and their numbers came 

 into lower latitudes. But the fishery which was car- 

 ried on at first by the Dutch, and latterly by the 

 British and the Anglo-Americans, has greatly thin- 

 ned their numbers, and confined them within much 

 narrower bounds' than they previously were. Any 

 one will readily understand that seals are much more 

 likely to have their numbers thinned in this way than 

 fishes ; because they produce only one or two young 

 ones at a time, while the fishes produce thousands 

 or even millions. What man can capture by all his ] 

 arts of fair fishing in the sea is not missed in the 

 multitude of his finny prey ; but it must tell in the 

 case of the seals. Seals are also far more wary and 

 sagacious animals than fishes ; and thus, when they 



are greatly molested on one ground, they are very 

 apt. to shift to another. Hence those of the North 

 Atlantic became so much thinned, that adventurers, 

 chiefly English or American, have sought for them 

 in all the inhospitable regions of the south. Those 

 fishing expeditions to the south, having originated in 

 a more enlightened and liberal age than those of the 

 north, have tended to increase our knowledge of those 

 remote seas. These discoveries indeed have done 

 little more than show that there really is nothing to 

 be discovered except a few wild rocks covered with 

 snow for great part of the year ; and affording rest- 

 ing places for seals and sea-birds only. But this is 

 something, as it prevents waste of time, which would 

 otherwise be occasioned in seeking that which is not 

 to be found. Mr. Weddel, of the brig Jane of Leith, 

 carried discovery into a higher latitude than it had 

 previously reached in those seas. On the 20th of 

 February, in 1823, he reached the latitude of 74 15', 

 which is higher by two hundred miles than any other 

 navigator has penetrated into the antarctic ice. No 

 land, however was seen in that longitude (about 35 

 west), to the southward of New Georgia, which is a 

 distance on the meridian of about 1500 miles. As 

 the seals are among the rocks, or in the more shallow 

 waters, small vessels answer best for this fishery ; 

 and in all coasting fisheries, or other operations in 

 the water along-shore, small trim vessels are always 

 the safest and the most manageable. The comple- 

 ment of men is about twenty-four ; and the proper 

 outfit of an expedition costs from 4000/. to 5000/. 

 The vessels are strongly timbered and double plank- 

 ed. The rigging of the vessels is also very simple, 

 but very substantial. They have generally a smaller 

 vessel, about forty tons burden, which can be stationed 

 near the shore as a general rendezvous for the fish- 

 ing-boats, which are usually six in number, and con- 

 structed in the same manner as whale-boats. A good 

 deal of experience and skill are required in choosing 

 the ground ; and when the proper spot has been se- 

 lected, the vessel is moored in a safe place, and the 

 apparatus for boiling the oil erected on the beach. 

 The small vessel thus acts the part of a tender between 

 the boats and the station. The seals are chiefly sur- 

 prised and knocked on the head while on the rocks ; 

 and when this is over for the time, they are skinned 

 and cut in pieces, which are stowed away in the 

 small vessel. A load of the small vessel consists of 

 about two hundred seals, which yield 'from eighty to 

 a hundred barrels of oil. When the vessel arrives 

 at the part where the boiling is carried on, the cargo 

 is delivered and boiled, the flesh of the seals after 

 the oil is extracted serving for fuel. 



This fishing is one of great hardship, and often of 

 great peril. The ships are sometimes out for three 

 years, and all the time in a s<ea which is any thing 

 but Pacific, while they are often at the distance of 

 thousands of miles from any supply or assistance. 

 Still, when successful, it is profitable, both for the 

 oil and for the skins. The species in most esteem for 

 oil are the long-nosed ones, called sea-elephants by 

 the fishers among the earless seals, and the maned 

 seal 'or sea-horse among those which have external 

 ears. But they differ much with the latitudes and 

 also with the longitudes of the places at which they 

 are taken. Those most in request for their fur are 

 those which are popularly called sea-bears ; but there 

 are many species which get the name of fur-seals. 

 Seal oil is accounted purer and better than that of 



