288 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



Suffocation is the question of only a few minutes, the stupid little 

 creature not knowing how to raise his immersed head and gain the 

 air again. After they have attained the age indicated above, their in- 

 stinct drives them down to the margin of the surf, where an alter- 

 nate ebbing and flowing of its wash, covers and uncovers the rocky 

 or sandy beaches. They first smell and then touch the moist pools, 

 and flounder in the upper wash of the surf, which leaves them as 

 suddenly high and dry as it immersed them at first. After this 

 beginning they make slow and clumsy progress in learning the 

 knack of swimming. For a week or two, when over-head in depth, 

 they continue to flounder about in the most awkward manner, 

 thrashing the water as little dogs do with their fore feet, making 

 no attempt whatever to use the hinder ones. Look at that pup 

 now, launched out for the first time beyond his depth ; see how he 

 struggles his mouth wide open, and his eyes fairly popping. He 

 turns instantly to the beach, ere he has fairly struck out from the 

 point whence he launched in, and, as the receding swell which at 

 first earned him off his feet and out, now returning, leaves him 

 high and dry, for a few minutes he seems so weary that he weakly 

 crawls up, out beyond its swift returning wash, and coils himself 

 immediately to take a recuperative nap. He sleeps a few min- 

 utes, perhaps half an hour, then awakes as bright as a dollar, ap- 

 parently rested, and at his swimming lesson he goes again. By 

 repeated and persistent attempts, this young seal gradually becomes 

 familiar with the water and acquainted with his own power over 

 that element, which is to be his real home and his whole support. 

 Once boldly swimming, the pup fairly revels in a new happiness. 

 He and his brethren have now begun to haul and swarm along the 

 entire length of St. Paul coast, from Northeast Point down and 

 around to Zapadnie, lining the alternating sand-beaches and rocky 

 shingle with their chunky, black forms. How they do delight in it ! 

 They play with a zest, and chatter like our own children in the 

 kindergartens swimming in endless evolutions, twisting, turning, 

 or diving and when exhausted, drawing their plump, round bodies 

 up again on the beach. Shaking themselves dry as young dogs 

 would do, they now either go to sleep on the spot or have a lazy 

 terrestrial frolic among themselves. 



Why an erroneous impression ever got into the mind of any 

 man as to this matter of a pup's learning to swim, I confess that I 

 am wholly unable to imagine. I have not seen any " driving " of 



