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carried on. The take of seals in the Canadian fisheries 

 last year was 75,000. 



Seal hunting, or fishing, as it is often called, requires 

 great patience and skill. Most of the seals, if not all, 

 are gregarious, and one seal seems to be always on the 

 watch where danger is to be apprehended from bears, or 

 from hunters. They climb up through holes in the ice- 

 fields of the polar seas, even when there is a height of 

 several feet from the water ; but it is difficult for the hunter 

 to get between them and the hole. Nor is seal-hunting 

 unattended with danger, an enraged seal being a formidable 

 antagonist, at least to the inexperienced. 



The fishing I have above referred to is entirely the hair 

 seal fishing, the object of which is to secure the oil and the 

 hide, the former remarkably good and clear, and only 

 second in quality to the oil of the sperm whale, and the 

 latter giving useful and durable leather. I will, with your 

 permission, take you from the far north to the far south, 

 and we will have a look at another seal-fishing industry 

 the fur seal fisheries of Southern Patagonia. Reference to 

 the map will show you that the western shore of Patagonia, 

 from the island of Diego Ramirez to the Gulf of Tres 

 Montes, is studded with islands and islets, some of them 

 washed by the stormy waves of the Southern Pacific, and 

 some of them sheltered in almost land-locked bays and 

 inlets. Upon these islands and rocks are to be found, 

 during a certain season of the year, rookeries of the South 

 Sea fur seals, and thither the seal-hunters repair every 

 season, for the purpose of capturing the much-prized skins 

 of the Magellan seals. The fishing commences about the 

 mouth of July, and lasts until February of the following 

 year, that is to say, for about six months out of the twelve. 

 The fishing is carried on principally by American owned 



