SEALS AND SEAL SHOOTING 149 



they lie at full length on the surface of the water 

 apparently sleeping. I have often approached to 

 within a few feet of them when in that position. 

 Others will sleep at least the eyes are closed in 

 a perpendicular position, and at such times 

 afford easy and sure shots. Some, on sighting a 

 canoe, will rush towards it, snorting and making 

 the water fly, and only stopping when fired at. 

 These are the kind one has to be careful of. It 

 is wonderful to see how active such a mass of fat 

 and flesh can sometimes be. In fine weather I 

 have frequently timed them, and found they 

 could remain under water twenty to thirty 

 minutes. To be very exact, twenty-seven minutes 

 was the longest I timed. 



When a large "hood" is killed, two canoes 

 join to drag it ashore, or to a nearby piece of 

 ice, where it is hauled up with the steel hooks, 

 the blubber and skin removed in one piece 

 and the carcass thrown away. If it has to be 

 towed far, a small hole is punctured in the 

 chest, and inflated by blowing into it, so that 

 there is less drag and no danger of losing it in 

 case it gets by accident out of the hook. Some 

 years ago many schooners went out sealing from 

 Natashquan and Esquimaux Point. Some of 

 their captains told me that when any large hoods 

 were sighted, on loose pans of ice, they never at- 

 tempted to go near them with their canoes or 

 small flat boats, but would sail down on them 



