FEBRUARY 25 



fish. When surfeited, they go to sleep floating on the 

 waves, and are then easily approached and speared by 

 the hunters. It is stated that almost all the seals 

 killed by British and Canadian crews are females, some 

 of them being still gravid, others nursing mothers, 

 whose hapless offspring either are left to die of starva- 

 tion or are clubbed for the sake of their long, soft fur. 



'I write,' says Captain Borchgrevink in The Story of the 

 Arctic Ocean, ' of what I have seen over and over again, with- 

 out being able to prevent it, for the excitement and the sight 

 of blood seems to turn our fellows into fiends incarnate for 

 the time being. . . . The ice was thickly strewn with baby 

 seals ; not even a lamb itself is more lovely and innocent- 

 looking than one of these. They are about two feet or two 

 and a half long, swaddled, as it were, from head to tail with 

 skin covered with long yellowish-white hair. Barring the 

 wee black nose and the jet-black, tender, loving eyes, there 

 is hardly another feature distinguishable, so well has Nature 

 wrapped them up against the cold. They never attempt to 

 move off; they can't. One blow from the sharp end of the 

 club, and the baby is sweltering in its gore. . . . The killing 

 of the young creature before fleecing is humane enough, but 

 this is not always done. . . . Beasts in the shape of human 

 beings sometimes skin them alive! I have seen these fellows 

 pitch a living flayed seal into the water to see whether it 

 would move off or not. ... I frequently saw the gunners 

 trample on a baby seal to bring up the poor mother who 

 heard it cry. She was then ruthlessly killed.' 



These dreadful doings are made more loathsome, if 

 that were possible, by the beauty and intelligence of 

 the victims, their natural docility, and the passionate 

 affection uniting parent and offspring. It is surely no 

 extravagant request which demands that restrictions 



