The Zoologist— Apkil, 1871. 2545 



several vessels near us, and more coming up, and bore away 

 farther north through an open pool of water. In passing through 

 a thin skirt of ice one of the men hooked up a young seal with his 

 gaff. Its cries were precisely like those of a young child in the 

 extremity of agony and distress, something between shrieks and 

 convulsive sobbings. It thrilled one's nerves at first, but when 

 I found that their sole employment, when alone on the ice, was 

 uttering similar cries, and that nearly the same cry was expressive 

 of enjoyment or defiance as of pain and fear, I became more 

 reconciled.* We soon afterwards passed though some loose ice 

 on which the young seals were scattered, and nearly all hands 

 were overboard, slaying, skinning and hauling. We then got into 

 another lake of water and sent out five punts. The crews of these 

 joined those already on the ice, and dragging either the whole 

 seals or their 'pelts' to the edge of the water, collected them in 

 the punts, and when one of these was full brought them on board. 

 The cook of the vessel and my man Simon, with the captain and 

 myself, managed the vessel, circumnavigating the lake and picking 

 up the boats as they put off one after another from the edge of the 

 ice. In this way, when it became too dark to do any more, we 

 found we had got three hundred seals on board, and the deck was 

 one great shambles. When piled in a heap together the young 

 seals looked like so many lambs, and when occasionally, from out 

 of the bloody and dirty mass of carcasses, one poor wretch still 

 alive would lift up its face and begin to flounder about I could 

 stand it no longer; and arming myself with a handspike, I pro- 

 ceeded to knock on the head and put out of their misery all in 

 whom I saw signs of life. After dark we left the lake and got 

 jammed in a field of ice, with the wind blowing strong from the 

 N.W. The watch was employed in skinning those seals which 

 were brought on board whole, and throwing away the carcass. In 

 skinning a cut is made through the fat to the flesh, a thickness 

 generally of about three inches, along the whole length of the 

 belly from the throat to the tail. The legs, or ' fippers,' and also 

 the head, are then drawn out from the inside, and the skin is laid 

 out flat and entire, with the layer of fat or blubber firmly adhering 

 to it, and the skin in this state is called the 'pelt,' and sometimes 

 the 'sculp.' It is generally about three feet long and two feet and 



* The cries of paiu and pleasure in the young seal appear identical to the human 

 ear, but are readily distinguished by the parents. — H. R, 



