136 SEALS AND SEAL SHOOTING 



will see that it is a sport with enough of variety 

 about it to make it interesting and to necessitate 

 keeping one's eyes open. One of my younger 

 brothers and his partner, Chouinard, got upset 

 two miles off Point des Monts while seal shooting 

 some years ago. It was by the merest chance 

 they were saved, the canoe having drifted towards 

 a piece of ice upon which they managed to climb 

 and empty the water out of the canoe, after 

 which they made for shore in all haste. They did 

 not feel much the worse for the wetting, but my 

 brother lost his whole outfit, including my 8 bore 

 Greener "Old Sure Kill" which I had lent 

 him for the winter. I often think of this fine old 

 gun and the sport I had with it, but which alas ! 

 like McGinty, is now ' 'lying at the bottom of the 

 sea". Owing to the low price of seal oil at the 

 present day, few hunters now follow sealing as a 

 business in winter. There also appears to be a 

 great decrease in the number of the harp seal in 

 the St. Lawrence. Its westernmost range in the 

 River St. Lawrence is about Murray Bay. I saw 

 a few there again last year (1908). 



fji> Harbor %tal (f fara tfitnlhw) 



Next to the "harp" in importance and numbers 

 is the Harbor or Common Seal (Phoca vitulina), 

 or, as it is called by the natives, the "wise seal". 

 Seals of this variety are tolerably common in the 

 St. Lawrence, especially in and about the estu- 



