SEALS AND SEAL SHOOTING 137 



aries of most of our large rivers. Their reason 

 for frequenting these places is two-fold : first to 

 deposit their young on the numerous shoals or 

 sand bars, which always occur at the mouths of 

 these rivers; secondly for food, the innumerable 

 quantities of small fry which descends these 

 streams, such as young trout, grilse, salmon, 

 smelts, tommy-cods, etc., falling an easy prey to 

 them. As a rule they always keep near the shore, 

 being very rarely met with at any distance from 

 it. They have a very keen sense of smell, much 

 more so than any other seal that I know of; at 

 least, if the others possess it equally with them, 

 it is not so apparent. This accounts for the dis- 

 tinction which the Indians give to it by calling it 

 the "wise seal". With the exception of the 

 young, they are very shy and difficult to shoot, 

 never exposing more than a small portion of the 

 head when in the water. Care must also be taken 

 in approaching them to keep under their lee, 

 while they, on their part, continually endeavor 

 to go to leeward of the hunter. During the sum- 

 mer months they very often get on top of some 

 solitary rock or large stone and bask in the sun 

 for hours. In places where they are occasionally 

 shot at they never land or approach the shore, 

 unless the wind is off the island, when they can 

 soon detect the presence of man even at a distance 

 of two or three hundred yards. Their period of 

 gestation is probably about nine months. Of this, 



