FUR FACTS 219 



sitting up with the body waving back and forth as if it would fall. 

 Where parts of the rookery have perpendicular cliffs, the animals are 

 to be found lying out on little shelves at angles where it is a wonder 

 they can keep their position at all. The seal also sleeps very soundly 

 in the water. It lies on its back in a bowed position, nose just peering 

 above the surface, and it is said always to the leeward, the hind 

 flippers being held aloft as a wind break to keep the animal in this 

 definite position. In this attitu^le the seal can apparently sleep 

 with tjie g^reatest comfort rocked by the gentle swell. 



Color of the Seal 

 The little pup at birth is a shiny black. Some of them show a 

 brownish shade along the throat and belly. In September they 

 shed their black coats and acquire coats of grey, which under the 

 action of the wind and weather soon changes into brownish, or com- 

 bination of brown and silvery color, which gives the skin the appear- 

 ance of a silvery brownish grey. When the female first comes out 

 of the water and lands on the island her coat is a dark grey, but under 

 the constant exposure to the weather and sun it turns to a rusty 

 reddish brown, somewhat darker on the back and along the throat 

 and belly. The young bachelor seals have silvery throats and bel- 

 lies, but their backs present the same dark brownish shade as the 

 females. The old bulls are usually always black, while others are 

 a reddish brown. The average color of the seals that are taken for 

 fur purposes are the brownish grey skins with the underpart of the 

 throat and belly a lighter silvery shade. The color of the seal is in 

 the top guard fur, or water hair as it is called. The underfur of the 

 seal is very uniform in color, when the top water hair or guard hair 

 is plucked out, and it is this soft thick under fur, about one half inch 

 in length, which is dressed and dyed and becomes the seal skin of 

 commerce, out of which garments are made. 



Killing Seals 

 When it comes time to kill the seals the whole population of the 

 islands turns out to join in the work. A gang of twenty five to 

 thirty seals are cut out from the main herd at a time and driven up 

 to the killing grounds, where men stand around with heavy clubs 

 with the ends bound in sheet iron; and as the seals are driven up, 

 these men walk up to the seal and with a crushing blow on the skuU 

 stun the seal and one or two more blows usually finishes him. It is 

 said that it takes a hardened individual to kill a seal. If you have 

 ever seen a seal in a zoo, you know what wonderfully appeaUng eyes 



