370 LABRADOR 



the salmon nets so carefully, and eat the struggling cap- 

 tives so rapidly, that there is little wonder most fisher- 

 men are "agin them. 77 I have known a seal haunt a net 

 so persistently that to get any fish the owner had to watch 

 all the while at one end of it, and even then the seal was 

 so "well adapted to his environment 77 that he would almost 

 snap off the fisherman's hand as he raced to be first to dis- 

 entangle the salmon. The bay seals are captured by our 

 people in nets anchored to the bottom. When diving, the 

 seals become "meshed 77 and are soon drowned, as they 

 cannot rise to breathe. 



The seals can travel a considerable distance over land 

 and can remain for long periods out of water. The harbour 

 seal (Phoca vitulina) breeds and lives in Seal Lake, one 

 hundred miles inland from Richmond Gulf and eight 

 hundred feet above the sea. In winter this seal leaves for 

 islands in the open where the sea does not freeze. The bay 

 seals of the coast breed on the land in caves, rocks, or beaches. 

 I have seen them many times with their young. When 

 the baby is born, he is a dusky white, but he soon assumes 

 a most beautiful silvery coat mottled with black, which 

 he wears for a year. During this time he is called a 

 "ranger/ 7 and his skin makes the most attractive clothing, 

 sleeping-bags, pouches, etc. 



At three years the ranger becomes a "doter 77 and is 

 a breeding seal. The young are born in April and May 

 in southern Labrador, and later on as one gets farther north. 

 The young seal is able to take to the water at once. It is 

 said that the "baby-hair 77 is cast inside the mother before 

 his birth. 



Clever as the modern circus "feature 77 shows seals to be, 



