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SEAL FISHERIES. 



Mr. CHAIRMAN, Ladies and Gentleman. The subject 

 of to-day's discussion is one capable of great elaboration, 

 and it will be impossible, in the limited time at our com- 

 mand, to do more than take a very cursory glance at it. 



There is no sea upon the surface of the globe in which 

 seals are not to be met with ; not in the breadth of the 

 great oceans, indeed, between the shores, though they are 

 capable of taking journeys of considerable length ; they 

 are most abundant upon the shores of the dreary lands in 

 the high latitudes, and near the margins of the ice, and in 

 the north they form an important article in the domestic 

 economy of the inhabitants of those inhospitable climates. 

 In the high latitudes, both north and south, the seals are 

 essentially gregarious. In the temperate latitudes they 

 assemble in groups, but not in very large numbers, while 

 in the equatorial seas the seals are solitary, or seen at the 

 most in pairs. 



In the Dominion of Canada, where sealing is, and has 

 been for years, carried on extensively, there are three 

 varieties of seals to which I desire to draw your attention : 

 the harbour seal, the harp seal, and the hooded seal. 



The herds of seals which frequent the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence arrive there in the month of November. They 

 come chiefly through the straits of Belle Isle ; they hug the 

 shores either of Labrador or of Newfoundland, penetrating 

 into all the bays, and not going far from land when doubling 

 the capes and headlands. In the winter they spread them- 

 selves through the gulf in search of icebergs, on which 

 they live for several months. In the months of May and 

 June they appear on the coasts, but this time they pursue 



