( ! 226 ) 



they are brought forth. The fea-wolf has very 

 acute fenfes, which are his fole means of defence 

 he is, however, often furprized in fpite of all his 

 vigilance, as I have already taken notice; but the 

 moft common way of catching them is the fol- 

 lowing. 



It is the cuftom of this animal to enter the creeks 

 with the tide *, when the fifhermen have' found out 

 fuch creeks to which great numbers of fea- wolves 

 refort, they enclofe them with ftakes and nets, leav- 

 ing only a final! opening for the fea- wolves to en- 

 ter ; as fbon as it is high- water they fhut this open- 

 ing, fo that when the tide goes out the fifties remain? 

 a dry, and are eafily difpatched. They alfo follow 

 them in canoes to the places to which many of 

 them refort, and fire upon them when they raife 

 their heads above water to breathe. If they hap- 

 pen to be no more than wounded they are eafily ta- 

 ken ; but if killed outright, they immediately fink 

 to the bottom, like the beavers but they have 

 large dogs bred to this exereife, which fetch them 

 from the bottom in feven or eight fathom water. 

 Laftly, I have been told, that a failor having one 

 day iurprifed a van: herd of them alhore, drove 

 them before him to his lodgings with a fwitch, as 

 he would have done a flock of fheep, and that he' 

 with his comrades killed to the number of nine 

 hundred of them. Sit fides penes mtorem. 



Our fifhermen now take very few fea-eows, on ; 

 the coafts of the gulf of St. Lawrence ; and I da 

 not certainly know whether any of them have ever 

 been catched any where elfe. The Englifh formerly 

 fet up a fifhery of this fort on the ifland de Sable? 

 but without any degree of fuccefs. The figure of 

 this animal is .not very different from that of the 



