THE BOOK OF MIGRATORY BIRDS 253 



On the seals being reached, the men are sent over the 

 ice, the harpooners armed with rifles, the other men with 

 seal-clubs, knives, &c., also a rope to drag the skins to the 

 ship, which are allowed to lie on deck till cold, and then 

 put into the tanks. And now a work of brutal murder and 

 cruelty goes on enough to make the hardest-hearted turn 

 away with loathing and disgust. The harpooner chooses 

 a place where a number of young seals are lying, knowing 

 well that the mothers will soon make their appearance to 

 see if the young are safe, and then shoot them without 

 mercy. This sort of work goes on for a few days, until 

 tens of thousands of young ones are left motherless to 

 die of starvation, not so much from the number of old 

 ones killed although too many of them are slain at this 

 season, forty thousand being killed one year in March as 

 from those wounded and scared away. In a short time the 

 old ones become shy, and will not come near where men 

 are standing, but keep at a respectable distance. It is 

 truly horrible to note the young ones in their endeavour 

 to suck the carcases of their mothers, their eyes starting 

 out of the sockets, looking the very picture of famine. 

 They crawl over and over them until quite red with blood, 

 poking them with their noses, no doubt at the same time 

 wondering why their usual source does not supply food. 

 Their cries are truly painful, and the din dreadful in the 

 extreme. These motherless seals collect into lots of five 

 and six and crawl about the ice, their heads fast becoming 

 the biggest parts of their bodies, searching, no doubt, to 

 find the nourishment they stand so much in need of. 



In Labrador there is a close time for the seals, which 

 are not allowed to be interfered with until the time that the 

 mothers are leaving their young. The females are very 

 affectionate towards their young. It is very amusing to 

 watch an old one coming on to a piece of ice, where there 

 are ten or a dozen young ones, going from one to another 

 until she finds her own, kissing and patting it and teach- 

 ing it how to feed. But any of the others had better not 

 venture near. If they do the old seal will stretcfi out her 



