164 
FOREST AND STREAM^ 
[Aug. 39, 1896. 
right toward us, although he was a good way off yet. 
He continued to come, and when he was just in sight and 
we could see his form in the moonlight we heard some 
one fire a shot, and then followed more shooting in quick 
succession. The shots were fired in another stream over 
a mile away and this frightened our moose, and he quick- 
ly turned into the wood and we could not see nor hear 
anything of him, so we concluded to go to camp and get 
warm and just at daylight to return to this spot and try 
and call him out again. 
We reached the lean-to at 2:30 A. M. and boiled some 
tea and at 3:30 started back to the spot which we had left. 
Before we again reached the place where he had left the 
water we heard him wading in the stream, and rounding 
the bend we could aee that it was the moose in the stream, 
but he was a small one and I would not shoot him. We 
splashed with the paddle as if it was a cow wading, but 
no inducement could get him to come toward us. At last he 
started to come down toward us, but the wind was blow- 
ing directly toward him and he got scent of us and made 
back into the woods and was soon lost to sight and hear- 
ing. We then gave up the hunt and, leaving the canoe, 
traveled back to camp by the light of the lantern, for 
the moon had hid itself under a cloud, and it looked very 
much like rain. 
By this time I was tired and sleepy, having been up all 
night and sitting twelve hours in the canoe. As soon as 
it was daylight Joe went down to our home camp on 
fiarrington Lake and I wrapped myself in my sleeping 
bag and slept untU 10 o'clock, I then began to feel 
hungry, so I opened a can of beans and boiled some. 
While I was sitting there eating a partridge flew up in a 
tree just near me and carefully eyed me, but did not seem 
to be much alarmed at my presence, and I then thought 
that I would try and photograph it, so getting my camera 
pointed upward toward the clump of trees, I photographed 
the partridge in the tree. 
Joe had just returned with a good load of provisions, 
and it had now commenced to rain. We concluded that 
we had better return to our home camp again, as it looked 
as if it would rain for a week, and as our lean-to was not 
water-proof, we thought it best to move to home camp. 
We piled all the things under the lean-to, and shoulder- 
ing our blankets started back to camp on Harrington 
Lake. We were soaking wet when we reached the tent, 
but it did not take long to dry before the blazing camp- 
fire, 
[to be concluded.] 
LABRADOR SKETCHES. 
VIIL— Seals and Seal Huntine- 
[Written for Forest and Strkam by Count H. do Puyjalon, and trana- 
iated by Crawford landsay.] 
The seals found in the waters of the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence along the Labrador coast are the following: 
The common or harbor seal {Phoca vitulina); the harp 
seal {Phoea groenlandica, Fabricius); the bristled seal 
(probably the Phoca lagura of Lacepede); the crested or 
hooded seal {Stemmatopiis cristatus. Cuvier); the square 
flipper or bearded seal {Phoca barhata, Fabricius); the 
yellow seal (probably the Phoea foetida, Fabricius); the 
horsehead seal {Phoca hispida, Fabricius). 
The harbor seal is very seldom killed far from land. It 
is chiefly found on the shore, on the rocks and in the deep 
bays which indent our shores. It sometimes ascends as 
far as the most distant falls in the rivers and remains 
there for the greater part of the summer. It is not un- 
usual to see herds of twenty-five, thirty and even forty 
individuals disporting in some of the bays, but this is 
purely accidental, as, contrary to the habits of most other 
seals, such for instance as the square flipper, bearded 
seals, etc., which seem to be guided by the orders of a 
leader or to be governed by some common law, each har- 
bor seal acts independently of the other members of the 
tribe. 
Its length does not exceed 5ft. and its weight is under 
2001bs. Its skin, a dirty yellowish white in color, is 
often marked with black spots close together, especially 
on the back, and its value is in proportion to the number 
of spots. It sells for from |1 to $1.50. The blubber, 
which is either melted slowly in the sun or tried out in a 
cauldron, yields from two to six gallons, according to its 
size, each gallon being worth from 25 to 30 cents. 
The harbor seal is polygamous. The female brings 
forth at the end of June one, or, very rarely, two young, 
which she suckles for about a fortnight and afterward 
abandons, apparently without the slightest regret. The 
yoimg seals at first seem in great distress at being aban- 
doned; they swim about here and there, whining and 
approaching everything afloat with a temerity which fre- 
quently costs them their lives. I have often caught them 
right alongside of my boat, against which they pressed, 
their wailing cries sounding like the weeping of children. 
When thus abandoned they get very thin, but get accus- 
tomed to being alone and to providing for themselves, 
and shortly become as wary as their parents — especially 
if they have been shot at and missed by unskillful hunt- 
ers. 
Harbor seals are shot from boats when the water is 
calm. They are also caught in nets spread near the banks 
and rocks to which they usually resort, landing with the 
flood tide and remaining high and dry when the tide ebbs. 
They always choose rocks from which they can easily 
slide into the water when disturbed. As they cannot 
walk, they would be unable to escape if they had to go 
over a solid surface for any distance. 
As already stated, these seals are hunted by men in 
boats, armed with guns. Like all other pinnipeds, they 
cannot remain long under water, and have to come to the 
surface to breathe after a quarter of an hour or twenty 
minutes.* 
When the water is calm it is easy to see them emerge, 
but when it is rough it is very difficult to do so. When 
the animal is pursued it soon dives, the boat is then pad- 
dled slowly and as quietly as possible in the direction it 
has taken, and when it reappears the hunter aims at its 
* Some seal huntprs affirm that the seal can remain under water for 
an Indefinite time without coming to tbe surface to breathe. It would 
be Interesting to ascertain what truth there may be in this statement, 
which I bave heard made in perfect good faith by hunters whose 
veracity seemed beyond a doubt. 
head, the side of the head if possible, and kills it if he is. 
not a bad shot. 
Of course, it is frequently necessary to pursue a seal for 
some distance and compel it to dive several times before 
getting within range. The hunters also hide among the 
rocks and attract the seals by imitating their movements. 
Some are so skillful that they nearly always succeed in 
bringing the animals quite close, when they shoot them 
easily. The rocks selected for this purpose must be in 
shallow water, for otherwise the seal might be lost by 
sinking before it can be seized, f 
The nets, called shore nets, have 6in. meshes, are frona 
twenty to twenty-five fathoms long and from two to two 
and a half fathoms deep. The upper line is provided with 
cork floats and the lower one is weighted with lead or 
round stones to make the net fit close to the bottom. This 
net is spread around the banks or rocks on which the 
seals are accustomed to land and, as they swim in, they 
get entangled and are drowned. 
These three methods of seal hunting or seal fishing are 
employed throughout the summer, not only for the har- 
bor seals, but for all the other kinds which frequent the 
Gulf during the open season. I have often seen harp and 
horsehead seals caught in shore nets. Other methods have 
been tried, such, for instance, as stretching lines with 
large hooks under water around the rocks, etc., but they 
have all been abandoned because they were unsucessful 
or because they injured the skins. 
The skin of the harbor seal, when well marked, is in 
great request for making tobacco pouches trimmed with 
glass beads, warm jackets which wear very weU, winter 
caps and mitts, etc. The oil obtained from their blubber 
is like all other kinds of seal oil. 
The hunting of the other species of seals is carried on 
on a much more extensive scale, as they congregate in 
large numbers in the spring on the ice fields or floes in 
the Gulf. They are the harp seal, the yellow seal, the 
square flipper, the hooded seal. On the ice floes are also 
occasionally found the bristled seal — a small and very 
scarce seal, which may be the Phoca lagura of Lacepede 
— and the horsehead seal, the Phoca hispida of Fab- 
ricius. 
The latter, like the harbor seal, is seldom found on the 
floes, and lives in small herds of from thirty to forty in- 
dividuals around rocks at some distance from the shore 
and well supplied with seaweed of various kinds. It pre- 
fers shallow water, and I consider it both carnivorous, 
and herbivorous. 
Occasionally other seals are found on the floes which 
seem to differ from the above in some features not 8UjB&- 
ciently distinct to allow of their being classified sepa- 
rately. 
For hunting these seals the Newfoundland hunters use 
steamers, while the Acadian and Canadian fishermen, who 
are too poor to do the same, fit out small schooners of 
from fifteen to thirty tons, or from 150 to 300 barrels, in. 
the language of the coast. 
These small vessels are manned by twelve, fifteen or 
eighteen men, according to the reputation of the captain, 
and the crew work on shares. Each man provides his 
own ammunition and provisions for the trip, which lasts 
about six weeks. As soon as a crew is collected and the 
agreement made for the cruise, all hands set to work to 
fit out the schooner. Strong timbers are fastened to its 
bows and sides to a certain height above the waterline, 
the masts are greased with tallow, the chain cables riv- 
eted, the sails overhauled and new bolt ropes rove if 
necessary, and the boats hoisted in. When everything is 
ready, the ice is sawn away from around the schooner 
and she starts on her search for ice fields. This is gener- 
ally done about March 15, and nearly all the schooners 
from Esquaimaux Point and Natashquan set sail at the 
same time. When at sea each captain acts on his own 
experience and sails wherever he thinks best. Some go 
to the Straits of Belle Isle, others to the archipelago of the 
Magdalen Islands, and others still toward the Island of 
Anticosti, seeking for the ice floes on which the seals take 
refuge. 
This navigation is not without its perils. Sometimes 
the schooners are caught between the floes and, unable to 
extricate themselves, are slowly carried out to sea. Then 
the sealers are obliged to feed on the scraps of meat 
adhering to the sealskins and blubber on board or to 
abandon their vessels and make their way to shore over 
the ice, hauling their boats with their arms and pro- 
visions. This entails great suffering and hardships, to 
say nothing of the danger. At other times the schooners, 
are nipped by the ice and sink with their crews. This 
fortunately happens but seldom. 
When the lookout gives notice that there are seals on a 
floe, this floe may either be a very large one without fis- 
sures — and then the seals may be clubbed — or it may be 
broken up and seamed by many channels of open water, 
and then the seals have to be shot. 
In the first case the sealers select a leader, put on white 
clothes, provide themselves with heavy tamarack or black 
spruce sticks 4ft. long and about Sin. thick and get on 
the ice very cautiously. 
The leader carefully reconnoiters the place occupied by 
the seals and tells off every sealer to his post. In doing so 
he pays special heed to the distance which separates the 
seals from the water and to the direction of the wind. 
When all his instructions have been given and thoroughly 
understood each man crawls to the position assigned him 
and awaits the leader's signal. In spite of every precau- 
tion the movements of so many persons cannot fail to 
cause uneasiness among the seals. They lift their heads 
and sniff the air, endeavoring to make out objects whose 
nature their eyes cannot distinguish. It is here that the 
skill of the leader manifests itself, for if he has been 
guilty of the slightest neglect in ascertaining the direc- 
tion of the wind and in assigning his followers th.eir 
posts the success of the hunt is endangered. 
The sealers remain perfectly immovable until the seals 
have quieted down. The leader then lifts his club and 
with a loud cry rushes on the herd, A portion of the 
sealers follow him, while the others cut off the seals' le- 
treat. Then follows a scene of indescribable tumult and 
confusion, especially if two or three crews work together. 
The greenhorns or awkward sealers who miss their blows 
curse their luck or jump aside to avoid the teeth of the 
partially stunned animals. The slaughter is soon ended 
and the work of flensing begins. The skins and blubbe? 
are taken off with incredible rapidity: a few minutes suf- 
fice for the operation, which is called sculping. 
When all the skins are removed they are laced; this 
consists in placing three or four small skins in a large one, 
around whose border small holes have been made, and by 
means of small lines this is laced with the hair outside 
over the skins inclosed, and the packages are hauled over 
the ice to the vessel, one being considered a good load for 
a strong man. When the packages are on board they are 
unfastened and the sculps are stowed away in the hold, 
being laid hair to hair and blubber to blubber. The sculp 
of the hooded seal is sometimes so heavy that it has to be 
Ihoisted in with block and tackle. 
In the second case, that is when the ice field is divided 
hy long fissures, the sealers have to resort to their guns. 
These are all muzzle-loaders, single or double-barreled, 
carrying a very heavy charge of powder and slugs. The 
boats used by the sealers are very light and narrow and 
painted entirely in white; they are manned by two men, 
clad in white. 
The bowman has two guns S-nd a boat hook close to his 
hand; the steersman has another boat hook and a sharp 
knife. Sometimes the hunter in the bow puts a block of 
ice in front of him to hide him. The steersman must be 
careful to keep well in line behind the bowman and work 
his paddle as quietly as possible without taking it out of 
the water and with his lower hand dipping in it. This 
kind of boat work is very difficult and requires practice 
and strength, for in keeping to leeward the hunters have 
always to paddle against the wind. 
When the boat gets within range of the seals the bow- 
man noiselessly lays down his paddle and takes up his gun, 
and leaving his comrade to continue paddling, he fires at 
tho seals, aiming as much as possible at the side or back 
of the head. 
When the ice floe is too large to allow the hunters to get 
within range in the boat, they land and crawl, one behind 
the other, until they get close enough. The hunter then 
fires and his comrade flenses the seals that are shot, A 
good marksman, who knows how to take advantage of the 
moment when the seals lift th^ir heads to sniff the enemy, 
can kill as many as four at one shot. 
There is still another kind of seal fishing by means of 
long nets with meshes 6in. wide, made of very strong 
twine and lines. They are set at points and passes be- 
tween the islands and the mainland and are hundreds of 
fathoms long. One end is attached to a capstan, the 
other end is carried out and by means of a long line is 
brought in a curved direction to a second capstan, placed 
at some distance from the first. When a sufficient num- 
ber of seals have got within the net the free end is 
hrought ashore as soon as possible. They are thus impris- 
oned between the net and the land and are then shot or 
clubbed. This kind of fishing is carried on in the fall. 
Seals have a certain amount of intelligence, and when 
tamed have been taught to do various things. The seal 
hunters of the Gulf affirm that when they are surrounded 
on the large ice floes and find it impossible to reach open 
water, the seals select the thinnest part of the ice field and 
Eile themselves one on top of another, until their weight 
reaks a hole through the ice and they escape into the sea. 
I have never seen this done, but it has been told me by 
several Acadian hunters who seemed trustworthy. 
The female of the floe seal gives birth about Feb, 15 to 
one, sometimes two and very rarely three young. For 
this event she selects the center of the largest ice floes, 
and always keeps holes open through which she can easily 
pass to obtain food. 
She suckles her cubs for a very short time, and when 
the latter are abandoned they collect on the ice floes, 
where the sealers kill immense numbers of them. Seal cub 
hunting is carried on up to the middle of April, when they 
leave the ice, and it always precedes the hunting of the 
older seals. 
The males and females mate almost immediately after 
the latter have brought forth, and as the hunters do not 
find any young seals before the following year, they con- 
clude that the period of gestation extends over eleven or 
twelve months. 
The hooded seal brings forth aittbeheginning of March. 
In the breeding season the male loses the hood, which 
gives it its name, and tha* ornament is replaced by a 
blood-red appendage about the size of two fists, and which 
seems to issue from the mouth without going beyond the 
maxillaries. 
Some hunters have assured me that they have killed 
individuals of the Stemmatopus tribe with three nostrils. 
I only mention this fact and the previous one to show 
how necessary it would be to make a closer study of these 
animals, of which but little, is as yet known, whatever 
may be said to the contrary. There is beyond a doubt 
some truth in the assertions respecting the transformation 
of the hood or crest in the breeding season and the abnor-/ 
mal enlargement of the nostrils. I am not in a position 
to say how far the same may be true, and I am sure that 
the most learned natuu^lists are not much better informed 
than I am and I deeply regret it. 
The large seals are heaviest after the middle of March; 
they weigh about 4001bs. and yield fifteen or sixteen 
gallons of oil. 
The hooded seals sometimes attain a weight of 2,000lbs., 
but they yield comparatively less oil than the harp or 
yellow seals. 
The bristled and horsehead seals also yield a com- 
paratively smaller quantity of oil. 
The sealing schooners nearly all return to port at the 
beginning of May. The pelts are at once landed, the 
blubber is separated from the skins; the latter are salted 
and the former is tried out in large cauldrons and bar- 
reled. The skins are worth from 3 to Bi cents a pound, 
fetehing about $4 as a rule; a very fine seal will bring $12. 
In good seasons the schooners take from 1,500 to 2,000 
seals each, but it very often happens that the catch 
amounts to only 150 or 200, which barely suffices to pay 
expenses. H. de Puyjalon, 
t At certain times, when the seal is not very fat, it sinks at once, 
especially when killed outright. When shot at a long distance, it dis- 
appears before the hunter (^n ^et close enough to seize or harpoon it~ 
CHAINED 
to Business? 
Can't go Shooting? 
Do the next best thing- 
Read the 
Forost Streaftb, 
