362 LABRADOR 



more clearly recognizes this or more deeply deplores it 

 than one of the best authorities, Dr. Fridjof Nansen. The 

 hood-seal fishery of East Greenland, once a great in- 

 dustry, has long ago ceased to exist. It began in 1761, 

 and by 1884 it was already failing, yet only one million 

 seals had been killed. Every year the white communities 

 in Labrador are finding it less worth while to prosecute the 

 seal-fishery. And now the land being also denuded of its 

 once plentiful game, many settlements have disappeared. 

 In 1795 it was considered a poor seal year when eleven hun- 

 dred were killed at Battle Harbour ; one hundred and fifty 

 seals would be a good year's catch there now. Professor 

 Hornaday of New York declares that " every large terres- 

 trial mammal species is being killed off faster than it 

 breeds." The same may be said of most of the aquatic 

 mammals. 



I am safe in saying that along the whole coast of Labrador 

 not more than fifty walrus are now killed in the year. One 

 was killed near Cape Mekattina in the Gulf, last year (1908). 

 I have not heard of any other having been seen in the Gulf 

 during the sixteen years I have known it. Most are killed 

 by the Eskimo at Okkak, Hebron, and Ramah. They are 

 more numerous around Cape Chidley, but there are fewer 

 people there to kill them. Great herds were said to have 

 once existed on the Magdalene Islands. In 1641 a vessel 

 hunting ''as far south as Sable Island secured as many as 

 four hundred pair of walrus tusks. In 1750 they were very 

 plentiful in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Yet in 1841 so rare 

 had they become, one was reported killed "as far south 

 as the Gulf of St. Lawrence." It may be noted that the 

 walrus are not migratory in habit. Even in the polar 



