Hardships of Seal-Hunting. 115 



to effect a landing, so that, to make sure of it, a sealing master 

 usually arranges his cruise so that he may reach the vicinity of 

 the rookery about a month before the breeding time. He then 

 takes advantage of the first fine day to land a party of men on 

 the rock with fuel, camping arrangements, and a large supply of 

 provisions. The latter is essential, for it may be two or three 

 months after the season is over before he can get a favourable 

 day for embarking the men and the stock of skins. Cases have 

 occurred where men have been weather-bound on the rocks for 

 months, and reduced to the brink of starvation, although making 

 use of seal-flesh and shell-fish as long as they could get them. The 

 different sealing captains are, of course, very careful to conceal 

 from each other the position of the " rookeries" of which they 

 know ; and they have got so much into the habit of deceiving 

 each other in this respect, that it may be laid down as a safe rule, 

 that if a sealing master says he has landed his men on some rocks 

 to the northward, it is more than probable that the real locality is 

 somewhere in a southerly direction. After the camping parties 

 have been established at the " rookeries," the sealing vessel with 

 the crew, now reduced to a very small number, is employed for 

 the next month or two in cruising in search of new hunting- 

 grounds. In this pursuit they sometimes wander for hundreds of 

 miles from the place where the men have been landed, traversing 

 unsurveyed channels and islets, trusting confidently that at night 

 time they can always find some sheltered place where they can 

 either anchor close in shore, or, if the water be too deep, as it 

 generally is, make fast to a tree. When cruising in this way, 

 they kill numbers of the Magellan sea-otter {Lutra felina\ an 

 animal which they include in their line of business, although not 

 at all to the same extent as the fur seal. The fur of the otter 

 when dressed is of great beauty ; but as it is not now in fashion 

 in Europe, it commands a very small price in the market, the 

 salted skins, on delivery in England, only realizing about 2s. apiece. 

 When the long brown hairs which form the animal's apparent coat 



