ENEMIES. 



653 



short thick fur being dry and clean, gave him a very warm at" 

 comfortable appearance. On being patted on the head he drew 

 it in till his face was perpendicular to his body, knitted his 

 brow and closed his eyes and nostrils, thereby assuming a A'ery 

 comical exiDression of countenance. Although he was fierce 

 when teased, and attempted to bite and scratch, he immediately 

 became quiet on being stroked or patted. They are doubtless 

 easily tamed, and might be made very interesting pets. In the 

 present instance the poor brute was cruelly teased by dogs and 

 men till he became exhausted, and Professor Jukes passed his 

 knife into his heart to end his misery.* 



The Harp Seals are stated to swim with great rapidity, pro- 

 pelling themselves with their powerful hind-flippers, one writer 

 estimating their speed when "bolting" under the ice as "at 

 least one hundred miles per hour," and observes that as they 

 pass beneath you you " will observe only a blue shade," even 

 if the water is perfectly clear. Their favorite position when 

 swimming, as affirmed by numerous observers, is on the back 

 or side, in which jiositiou they also sleep in the water. 



Their social and gregarious instincts seem to be manifested 

 on all occasions ; they not only migrate in dense herds, and 

 assemble on fhe ice in compact bodies, but are rarely met with 

 singly, though occasionally in small groups. As noted on pre- 

 ceding pages, immense herds sometimes fill the sea as far as 

 the eye can reach, or thickly cover the ice over areas of many 

 square miles in extent. 



Enemies. Aside from their destruction by man, and not 

 unfrequently by the elements, they find a formidable enemy in 

 the sword-fish, and are extensively preyed upon by sharks. 

 Mr. Carroll, my chief authority on this j)oint, says that when 

 the Seals aie floating about on single "pans," he has seen sword- 

 fish, sharks, and other kinds of fish, taking them off. The 

 sword-fish, he says, will get on one side of the i)an and j^ress it 

 down to such an angle "that the Seal must slip off" among 

 them and be torn to pieces". The Seals appear to have a great 

 terror of these remorseless enemies, for the same authority adds, 

 "I have been on pans of ice when seals mounted the ice to 

 avoid the sword-fish and sharks, and obliged to fire at the mon- 

 sters to keep them off". A seal will shake with fear, and should 

 a man be on the pan when sword-fish and sharks are after them, 



* Excurs. in Newfoundland, vol. i, pp. 283, 284. 



