144 SEALS AND SEAL SHOOTING 



Chester Express at 150 yards. These horse-head 

 seals do not seem to be at all frightened of nets, 

 and at Manicouagan they are the terror of the 

 harbor seal hunters, going through their strong 

 nets like cobwebs. Luckily for the fisher- 

 men of both salmon and seals, they are not 

 very numerous, though some few are scat- 

 tered all along the coast and around Anti- 

 costi Island. Their chief resorts are the 

 Mingan Islands, Cawee Islands and the Mani- 

 couagan Shoals. But they roam much further 

 west, as, early in October, 1886, I shot a 

 two-year-old female, at Seal Reef (near the Pil- 

 lars), 45 miles below Quebec. They are not suf- 

 ficiently numerous anywhere in the Province to 

 be of any commercial importance. Mr. J. Thi- 

 beau, of Manicouagan, assured me that he killed 

 one there of nine feet in length. They are very 

 savage and fight fiercely together solely to main- 

 tain a position on a rock or shoal. The harbor 

 seals are often found with them, but they keep at 

 a respectable distance. Except very late in the 

 season, towards October, it is very difficult to 

 save any of these seals, as they sink almost like 

 stones when killed. The only chance is when 

 they are in shallow water, where the bottom can 

 be seen. They are intensely fond of keeping near 

 the foot of cliffs or bold rocks in stormy weather, 

 seeming to delight in the boiling sea, where one 

 would expect them to be dashed to pieces. In 



