Vivisection. 
321 
1876.] 
honour of humanity, a method was discovered of converting 
the greyish hue of its fur into a rich lustrous brown. Forth- 
with seal-skins became the rage, not for the caps or waist- 
coats of sailors and fishermen, or the garments of Skraelings, 
but for the jackets of fashionable ladies, and found a ready 
sale at high prices. To obtain them extensive hunting expe- 
ditions were sent out, and conducted with an amount of 
cruelty which is perhaps without a parallel in all the dealings 
of man towards the lower animals. Seals are most readily 
captured at the time when they have young cubs not yet 
capable of following their mothers through the water. At 
this time they may be found upon the shores of certain 
arCtic regions in great numbers, and here accordingly they 
are attacked. The mother seals are stunned with blows 
from clubs, and then flayed, often before quite dead, it being 
considered that the fur is thus obtained in a more lustrous 
condition. As for the young ones, they are left to perish of 
cold and hunger. The frightful atrocity of this system will 
be more fully understood if we remember that the seal 
stands high in the scale of animal life, and possesses a large 
well-developed brain and a delicate nervous system. All 
this cruelty is therefore done for the sake of “ fashion,” and 
to it all wearers of seal-skin jackets make themselves acces- 
sories. It is true that some voices, in England and else- 
where, have been raised against this system, and that some 
attempts have been made to mitigate its horrors by legis- 
lative enactments. But policemen, officers of the Society 
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and magistrates, 
cannot follow every seal-hunting expedition to the northern 
seas ; and there is every reason to fear that as long as the 
demand for seal-skin jackets continues, the supply will be 
obtained substantially in the manner we have sketched. 
Feather beds are no longer, as was once the case, con- 
sidered preferable to all others. But they are still in exten- 
sive use, and live goose feathers — i.e., such as are plucked 
from the unfortunate birds whilst still living — are still pre- 
ferred as being more elastic than those obtained after death. 
Whether this practice is legal at the present day we know 
not. But a demand exists for such feathers, and they are 
still advertised for sale, no one denouncing such needless 
cruelty. 
Somewhat similar must be our conclusion concerning the 
present mania for using portions of birds, or even entire birds, 
as ornaments. In consequence of this whim rare and beautiful 
birds, trogons, sun-birds, humming-birds, birds of paradise, 
and others, are shot down at random, and are imported not as 
VOL. Vh (n.s.) 2 H 
