220 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



XIII.— THE NEW BRUNSWICK SEA-LIONS. 



I HAD often heard tell of the Sea Lion as one of 

 the largest seals of the Arctic regions, and many a 

 time, in my conversations with sea captains, who had 

 returned from Labrador, I had inquired about the 

 localities frequented by these monstrous amphibia. 

 It seems that it is especially on the coasts of the 

 State of New Brunswick, in Upper Canada, about 

 Chaleur Bay, opposite the Madeline Islands, that 

 the sea-lions are found in the greatest numbers. 

 The nature of the soil, the peculiar herbs that grow 

 at the bottom of the sea, the comparative tranquillity 

 that reigns in those regions, so remote from all the 

 haunts of civilisation, all concur in attracting them 

 to these waters, where morning and evening, and 

 sometimes at mid-day, the shore may be seen covered 

 with the sea-lion. 



One day at New York, thanks to my profession as 

 a journalist and a traveller, I was informed that a 

 political meeting was to take place at Halifax, the 

 capital of Nova Scotia, and was requested to go 

 thither for the purpose of reporting the speeches and 

 debates, and telegraph them immediately to the 

 newspaper to which I was attached. I took my 

 passage on board one of the Cunard steamers, and, 



