126 SEALS AND SEAL SHOOTING 



seven to eight hundred pounds each. When one 

 of these is seen at a distance it is easily recog- 

 nized by its peculiar manner of lying with the 

 whole of its back out of the water, thus resembl- 

 ing a buoy, and raising its head occasionally to 

 breathe or look around. Then it lowers its head 

 under the surface again, as if looking for some- 

 thing in the water, frequently diving while in 

 that position, without raising its head, and going 

 forward, head first. I never saw any of these on 

 the ice, like our other seals, probably because of 

 their scarcity. The smallest of the seals here is 

 the floe rat, or ringed seal, which last is a very 

 appropriate name on account of its pretty ring- 

 shaped markings. The local name here is the 

 gum seal, but why it is so called I never heard 

 satisfactorily explained. Many persons con- 

 found this variety with the harbor seal, but the 

 least attention will serve to show the difference. 

 The hair is not so close and fine as that of 

 the harbor seal, and is not spotted, but marked in 

 rings. In life they are easy to recognize by their 

 short stumpy appearance, and by the size and 

 shape of the fore flippers. They are the only 

 seals here that keep ice holes open on the large 

 bays. English Bay and St. Pancras Cove near 

 Manicouagan, used to be, some years ago, favor- 

 ite localities for them, but since the establishment 

 of lumber mills near Manicouagan, they have 

 forsaken the place or been exterminated, as 



