THE STORY OF THE SEAL . 
301 
A large number of seals are also captured in nets, this method being chiefly 
employed during the spring and autumn visits to the shore. Nets appear to 
have been in use longest in the Gulf of Bothnia, the Capsian Sea, and Lake 
Baikal, where they are set either from the shore or beneath the ice. In the 
Gulf of Bothnia such nets are from sixty to ninety feet in length, and about 
six feet in depth. Two of them are generally set together in the neighbor¬ 
hood of rocks to which the seals resort, and are always placed to the leeward 
of the mainland or some headland. When they strike against the nets, the 
seals thrust their heads through some of the meshes, and by twisting them¬ 
selves about gradually become completely involved. In the Caspian Sea the 
LEOPARD SEAL. 
nets are usually hung from boats at a considerable distance from the shore. 
In Lake Baikal, on the other hand, the nets are let down through the breath¬ 
ing-holes of the seals in the ice, and the animals become entangled on rising. 
The seal-box used in parts of Scandinavia is a contrivance with a swing¬ 
ing plank, upon which, when the seal lands, it is precipitated headlong into a 
deep pit. Another Scandinavian plan is to surround a seal-rock with a line 
armed with a number of barbed hooks. These hooks allow the seals to land 
