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\«>v 
 
 ^I,Ce.1^IDING PINNI 
 
 A DESCRIPTION' 
 
 'K^i 
 
 OK 
 
 THL MiGkATION AND PECULiARlilES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Phoca Greenlandica and Cystophora Cristata, 
 
 WITH 
 
 il*^ 
 
 Remarks on the Phoca Barbata, the Vitulina, and Trichechus 
 
 Rosmarus, on the 
 
 NORTH-EAST COAST OF AMERICA. 
 
 BY 
 
 JteOMMANDER GEORGE ROBINSON, R.N., 
 
 "^ Late Of St. John's, .Newfuundla.vd, 
 
 5" 99 
 
 HI 
 VA4 
 
 1^5 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, 
 
 LONDON : 
 J. D. POTTER, 31, POULTRY, E.G. 
 
 1897. 
 
5^33^745' 
 
 ICE-RIDING PINNIPEDS: 
 
 
 A DESCRIPTION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE MIGRATION AND PECULIARITIES 
 
 O- THE 
 
 Phoca Greenlandica and Cystophora Cristata, 
 
 WITH 
 
 Remarks on the Phoca Barhata., the Vitulina, and Tn'chechus 
 
 Rosmarus, on the 
 
 NORTH-EAST COAST OF AMERICA. 
 
 BY 
 
 COMMANDER GEORGE ROBINSON, R.N., 
 
 LATE*or St. John's, Newfovndla.nd. 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 
 
 LONDON : 
 J. D. POTTER, 31, POULTRY, E.G. 
 
 . 1897. 
 
TREFACE. 
 
 TUK ailgratioG and habila of the five varietieH of the pinnt- 
 pedia mentioned in thia paper, have been collated and 
 arranged from the personal experience of a considerable 
 number of ice masters and captains of whaling and sealing 
 ships, both steamers and sailing vessels, who have been 
 constantly engaged in the pursuit of two of the varieties 
 particularly dwelt upon in this brief sketch. 
 
 The remarks on the inception of the migration in Baffin's 
 Bay and possibly Hudson's Bay, have been gathered from 
 the observation;, of the late Captain Adams, Captain Guy, the 
 Fairweather Brothers, Captain Milne, and Captain Arthur 
 Jackman, of St. John's, Newfoundland. The previously- 
 m.-ntioned experienced ice masters, are connected T.ith the 
 Dundee Sealing and Whaling Company's fleet of steamers, 
 sailing out of St. John's. The moveraentfl and habits of the 
 seals on the Labrador coast, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and 
 the east coast of Newfoundland are entirely drawn from the 
 long experience and constant observation of the Ice masters 
 of Newfoundland. In addition to these experienced men, 
 
the writer mast insert the names of Mr. Samacl McNeill of 
 AUik on the Labrador ; and Captain R. B. Crocker of 
 Grign'»t on the northern peninsula, who have roateriallj 
 assisted in the compilation of this paper. 
 
 It will be obvious that great difterences of opinion must 
 exist with regard to many of the subjects touched apon, 
 extendin>r as they do, over a large area of the eastern sea- 
 board of North America, and dealing with minute par- 
 ticulars of an animal, which mav be described as constant] v 
 under water, and whose goings have only been arrived at 
 after a century of experience. 
 
 The writer takes this opportunity to ask for forbearance 
 and kind consideration, in many of the very diflBcult and 
 disputed points he has ventured to touch upon, which can 
 only be understood, and appreciated or condemned, by the 
 sealing and whaling communities of St. John's and Dundee. 
 
 G. B. 
 
 12, BuRMKOTON Road, 
 
 Reuland, Bristol. 
 
 September, 1897. 
 
ICE-EIDIXG PTXNIPEDS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NOUTII-EAST COAST OF AMERICA. 
 
 Ix approaching the subject of the habita and movements of 
 some of the varieties of the hair seal which inhabit the 
 coast of Greenland and Baffin's Bay, it will be evident that 
 the subject cannot be treated in the careful and minute 
 manner that is evidenced in the United States report on the 
 fur seal at the Pribiloff Island in the Behring Sea. The 
 circumstances are very different. In this case our detailn 
 have to be gathered from the observations of a large 
 number of men, who are untrained in accurate methods of 
 investigating what they see. Many of them, it is true, 
 exhibit considerable skill in noticing peculiarities and 
 details that are most valuable, but these crude obervalions 
 cannot be compared with the reports of highly trained 
 scientific men, such as the author of the Pribiloff Island 
 
6 
 
 It is however trno that details of movement may in this 
 case exceed the possibilities of observation in the Pacific. 
 The hair seal clings to the coast line in all its wanderings ; 
 and when it occasionally leaves the coast, there are facilities 
 for observing its presence, and that is all that is i-equired. 
 It appears to exhibit an anxiety to escape from the ice in 
 the early period of its movements, and there are features 
 in the order of its going, that appear to approach more 
 closely to the migratory habits of birds than any other 
 animal. The jnuni'pe<h'a may and do exhibit an apparent 
 laziness, in lying about the ice, and basking in the sun, 
 but their power of motion is very great, and enables them 
 to traverse long distances in search of a more extensive 
 supply of food than Baffin's Bay and the West Coast of 
 Greenland can provide; at a season when the bay, and all 
 its sounds and feeders from the Arctic Ocean, are beginning 
 to become frost bound, and possibly denuded to a certain 
 extent of that fish life which is so necessary to the pinnipedia. 
 The removal of a vast body of seals from these arctic waters 
 between the months of October and June, appear to point in 
 this direction ; the food supply for whales and other forms of 
 cetaceans is profuse ; viedusae, clio bor€alii<, ptnopod mnlhisks, 
 gelatinous life in all its varied forms, is found in abundance 
 in these waters ; but it may be questioned if this form of life 
 is sufficient for the seals. That they consume the various 
 forms of moUH><ks is probable, and a small octopus abundant in 
 Davis Strait, the bone of which is the only food found in 
 the stomach of the cod caught otf Cape Chidley, in the end 
 of July or August, when it is emaciated to such a degree that 
 the fishermen compare it to a lantern, or living skeleton ;— 
 
 e • 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
that the seals are occaaionally reduced to this food there can 
 be little doubt. If the fish on which the seals exist, are 
 driven to such diro extremities, is [it not {.robable that the 
 seals will be ♦hin 'i and they are thin in October when they 
 leave the strait. They are netted dil Cape Magford. The 
 cod previously mentioned, are a portion of probably a 
 fugitive school of fish, such as strike into the North Cape, 
 
 Norway. 
 
 The Tnchechns Rosmarus, or Walrns, may be regarded aa 
 a permanent inhabitant of Davis Strai* tind Bafiin's Bay, 
 yet a few Hoat down on the heavy ice in June as far as the 
 Straits of Belleislo and the uorthern bays of Newfoundland. 
 Previous to 1850 they were reported to be commonly seen 
 in the (inlf of St. Lawrence. The Phoca Barhata (bearded 
 seal), or great light blue seal, may be considered in the 
 same light as the Eosmanis ; they float down the Labrador 
 coast in pairs, or single ; never in a group or herd. They 
 may be regarded as a striking illustration of the monoga- 
 mous habit of the hair seal in these waters, and were noticed 
 but not named by Captain Parry in 1817. This seal is 12 to 
 It feet long, and about the same girth ; they produce one 
 young seal in June, which is light blue with brown spots. 
 Occasionally they enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and some 
 of the northern bays of Newfoundland. Some of the 
 younger members of this variety appear to be led away by 
 the younger members of the Phoca Greenland ica, and the 
 Cystophoid Cristata, commonly called the " Harp " and 
 '•Hood" seals; and are persuaded to join in the annual 
 migration to the south, in which proceeding, neither they or 
 theii parents have any lot or inheritance. They are usually 
 
8 
 
 netted in small numbers in the Belleisle Strait and on the 
 east coast of Newfoundland, and have occasionally been 
 taken on the south coast. This is not a commercial seal, the 
 skin is too thick, and the oil not so fine as the Harp cr Hood. 
 — The young Barhata are light blue with brown spots until 
 they are five years old. 
 
 The Calocephalns Vifulimix, can hardly be considered an 
 ice-riding seal in the proper acceptation of the term, for they 
 t 3 not usually produce their young on the ice, and that is 
 the strict meaning of " ice-riding pinnipeds." But there is 
 little doubt that some of the northern seals utilise the ice 
 as the nursery jL*/o tempore. There is no actual necessity for 
 them to do so, for the young Viti'.h'nn is not born until June. 
 They may be said to be ubiquitous, but not migratory, 
 although they have been netted with the other seals. They 
 frequent the bays and arms of this extensive coast-line from 
 Davis Strait to the United States. They travel up the 
 brooks, live in the ponds many miles from salt water, and 
 are great poachers. They produce their young in quiet 
 corners in the bays, generally upon smooth flat rocks, or 
 shingle beaches up the brooks. They often produce two, 
 •which are beautifully marked in golden buff and brown a 
 few hours after they are born, or when they shed their 
 white coat. Occasionally they are found on the ice with the 
 breeding Harps and their families, many miles to the east- 
 Mrard of the land, but nearly always alone ; they have 
 probably drifted down from the north. 
 
 The Phuca Gt'eenlandicn, or Harp seal ; so called, on 
 account of a patch of brown hair on the shoulder, supposed 
 to represent a harp. Tt is five to seven feet in length, with 
 
9 
 
 an indigo blue back, fading into grey, and a white belly. 
 The face is dark grey, and almost a black muzzle, with long 
 whiskers. The eyes are liquid brown and veiy ])eautiful. 
 The nails of the claws are a neutral tint with a blue shade. 
 It prcdaces an immature " white coat," at the end of 
 February, or early in March, and changes its coat on the 
 ice, in about 25 days, to pearl grey with brown spots, when 
 it takes the water. The young Harps continue to be spotted 
 until they are five years old, when the grey assumes the 
 deep blue, with the brown patch on the shoulder. The 
 Scotch sealers call them " saddle backs." 
 
 This well-known variety inhabits the coast of Greenland, 
 Baffin's Bay, and Hudson's Bay. Nothing is known of the 
 movements of the East Greenland body, on the American 
 coast. 
 
 The fur traders and Indians in the vicinity of Hudson's 
 Bf y, speak of the large number of .seals in this exten- 
 sive sheet of water, but we are entirely indebted to the 
 experienced ice-masters of the Dundee fleet to supply us 
 with a name. It is the ships which follow the fish into Fox 
 Channel, Boothia Gulf, and other arms, that pass through 
 the Huds(>n Strait, and notice the seals and their colour, and 
 consider them to be a portion of the Davis Strait variety 
 with which they are so familiar. There is however a groat 
 difference of opinion as to whether any of these seals find 
 their way througli Hudson Strait in October. Xobody lives 
 on Cape Chidley or Resolution Island to give information. 
 The expeditions that have gone there give a rather forbid- 
 ding account of the "state of the ice" late in September 
 and early in October. The fast ice makes earlv. and reaches 
 
 . j^ 
 
10 
 
 out a long distance ; the rise and fall of the tides is exces- 
 sive, the curr<^nt is strong, and t^- descriptions of the ice 
 rafting, and jamming in that strait are not pleasant. It is 
 the opinion of very experienced ice-masters, that no large 
 body of seals pass through in October and join the annual 
 migration . However this may be, there is no necessity for 
 the seals to come through Hudson Strait, for Eclipse Sound, 
 ■ott Inlet, or Home Sound would provide them wi^b egress 
 if there was an inclination to go, or if the ice permitted 
 them. Unfortunately, we have little or no communication 
 with Hudson's Bay. We have no account of these seals, 
 whether they are increasing or diminishing, which is a very 
 
 important point. 
 
 Although we have no certain knowledge of these sealP, 
 yet it is reasonable to suppose that they are no mean " ice 
 borers," for Hudson's lUy must be fresher than Davis Strait 
 water, and therefore the ice will be more brittle and difficult 
 to maintain the " bore hole." Not only so, but they always 
 ride "fast ice," i e., ice connected with the shore. They 
 certainly do not experience the vicissitudes of the seals 
 tossed on the eastern coast of Newfoundland, or driven into 
 tho Atlantic ; so that probably time has influenced or modi- 
 tied their form to some extent, owing to their comparatively 
 easy life. The Gulf of St. Lawrence Harp seal is a shorter 
 and stouter seal than the eastern body ; It always rides 
 "fast ice." In some ways it appears proba'ule that these 
 two very different bodies in some respect-., have now, or 
 have had, some connection. The Galf seal performs a long 
 journey to accomplish the desired end, viz., a more varied 
 and extensive supply of food, and the propagation of its 
 
11 
 
 species. Bat Hudson Bay, offers ample scope for any rea- 
 sonable migration. They can reach down to the latitude of 
 Battle Harbour and north to Lancaster Sound, and it is 
 reasonable to suppose that a large body accept the confined 
 situation in the Bay, to the perils of the reaches or the 
 
 strait. 
 
 Against this supposition it may be said, that natural 
 selection, consequent upon a constant approach for centn.-ies 
 to a particular locality where different and favourable con- 
 ditions obtained, which enabled it to bring forth its young 
 in a comparative " haven of rest" when compared with the 
 storm-tossed pinniped of the east coast, are sufiBcient to 
 account for the modification. Xot only so, but the Cystophoid 
 Cristata abandons its rough ice proclivities and quietly rides 
 the fast sheet ice of the gulf. Yet experienced ice masters 
 consider the Gulf Hood a large variety, different in habit 
 from the eastern body. If these remarks are productive of 
 additional knowledge of Hudson Bay seals, the object of the 
 writer will be accomplished. 
 
 The Cystophora Cristata, or hooded seal, may be con- 
 sidered an inhabitant of Greenland, not only from its move- 
 ments after it has ridden the ice, and fulfilled the purpose of 
 its visit to these waters, but because the older ice masters 
 consider that the Cri,Lata has been slowly working round the 
 -vest coast of Greenland into Davis Strait ; that previous to 
 1850, or about that time, not so many Hoods were noticed 
 in the vicinity of Gotharb, Cumberland Sound, and perhaps 
 Holsteinborg. It is, however, eviont that they abound 
 now. The Cristata \s seven to nine feet in length, and 
 probably the same girth. It is a grey seal covered with 
 
12 
 
 brown blotchos and a white belly. The peculiar hood, which 
 has the appearance of black rubber, has been often de- 
 scribed, Tho nails in the claws are yellow. It produces a 
 grey seal with brown spots at the end of February or early 
 in March. It is a wilder ard fiercer seal than the G'reeu- 
 landica, which may be said to be ejentle, and even affectionate 
 in captivity. In both these varieties the female is only a 
 few inches shorter than the male, bat not so stout, and the 
 facial expression is milder. 
 
 It is needless to say that the purpose of this paper, is the 
 habit and movement of the 2nanij,eds, and not their struc- 
 ture ; yet it will conduce to a better understanding of their 
 movements if it is briefly explained that the seal, like the 
 whale, is provided with a comnlex arrangement of the 
 respiratory organs, which enables it to store oxygen in 
 sufficient quantities to remain under water a considerable 
 time for a mammal ; but at the end of that period (say 
 twenty minutes) the animal must rise to the surface to 
 renew the air, or be drowned. Consequently, the seal will 
 not venture rashly under a large body of heavy sheet or 
 packed ice ; it will surround it, if possible. The seal is 
 supposed to travel about twenty miles an hour for a limited 
 period; if we accept this rate, and a possible twenty minutes 
 below the surface, then they might be supposed to venture 
 under, say six miles of ice, but they do not. A body of seals 
 will seldom venture under a body of packed ice, or sheet ice 
 that they cannot break with their head, of more than two 
 miles i.i width. Yet these " stupid terrestrial mammals " 
 (Cuvier) are enabled to arrive at a jast estimate of the 
 breadth of the obstruction, and its density, and act accord- 
 
13 
 
 ingly ; but by what process they are able to grasp the 
 situation, is beyond the comprehension of the ice masters. 
 
 It will be seen tht t this cautiousness of the seal, has a 
 considerable bearing upon their possible exit through 
 Hudson Strait, or the sounds, or inlets. In the former" the 
 loud crashes of the ice, as large sheets, six inches in thick- 
 ness, are reared up on end twenty feet, and dasheJ resist- 
 lessly upon the opposing ice." But this is precisely what 
 takes place between Shecatica, and New Ferrole point in the 
 Gulf; perhaps these seals or their progenitors, have wit- 
 nessed "a raft" and understand the consequences. Both 
 positions exhibit a wild war of nature's terrible forces. 
 
 In the case of the sounds, or inlets such as Scott or Pond, 
 no such violent commotion takes place, but they freeze at 
 the end of September; only the seals will be able to judge if 
 they can get through. It appears quite reasonable to 
 suppose that a small number may occasionally pass that 
 way. But the circumstances of Hudson's Bay, and the 
 sounds and inlets, are reproduced to a considerable extent 
 in Baffin's Bay, for a very large portion of this inland sea is 
 frozen over, and apparently to such an extent as to render 
 the possibilities of open water, or lanes and cracks in the 
 ice, very limited in extent when compared with great 
 expanse of water, it is only in the centre with lanes extend- 
 ing to the southward about twenty miles off the harbours of 
 Disco and Holsteinborg. Tfcs tidal waters of Smith Sound, 
 Jones Sound, and Lancaster Sound appear to exert sufficient 
 influence in mid-winter to move, or well up the lower waters 
 to the surface in the middle of the bay, and afford a limited 
 area of breathing space to a restricted number of seals that 
 
14 
 
 inhabit these waters during the winter, but that is all ; the 
 area of open water is insufficient for a tithe of the multitude 
 that leave this bay in September and October. This feature 
 in l^affin's Bay appears to point to a restricted circulation in 
 mid-winter, probably caused by ice obstruction, and all the 
 feeders from the Arctic bearing north and west being con- 
 tracted in addition. Berg ice probably relieves the 
 straitened circumstances to a certain extent and leaves an 
 open trail, but it is obvijusly narrow and limited. Beset 
 whalers in early days, and the drift of the Polaris pan, alone 
 prove this open water; but it points to a reason for migra- 
 tion more potent than uny insufficient supply of food, and 
 exerts an influence over these animals which reasonably 
 accounts for their southward movement at this period of the 
 year, for Baffin's Bay is rapidly becoming uninhabitable for 
 the vast body pressing south. 
 
 The Dundee whaling ships leave Cumberland Sound 
 about the 'ioth of October, and they notice bodies of seals as 
 they force their way out to the S.S.E. This stream of ice 
 off " Cape Mercy " may be sixiy or a hundred mi' i wide ; 
 but tsyond this, the ocean is clear of ice from Greenland to 
 the Labrador. But these bodies of seals speak of a move- 
 ment in progress, the gathering of the multitude has already 
 taken place. The inception of migration must be at an 
 earlier date. The young ice is supposed to make in Baffin's 
 Bay, on or about the 20th of September, according to the 
 season, i.e., there will be a considerable range in the time, 
 between cold and early, or mild and late seasons ; and the 
 range is about 25 days, so that in a cold early season the 
 sounds and inlets may catch over on the 8th of September 
 
15 
 
 and in milJ on the 2nd of October. It appears very 
 reasonable to suppose, that the seals move to the S.S.W. 
 after passing the body of ice off Cape Walslagham, shortly 
 after the ice begins to make; because they invariably 
 precede a body of ice flowing down the Labrador coast, 
 whose motion is fairly determined, and coincides to a 
 certain extent with the dates previously given, only a month 
 
 later. 
 
 From Cape Walsingham to the entrance of the Belleisle 
 
 Btrait is 840 miles, and the seals are supposed to accomplish 
 
 the journey in about sixty days ; but it must not be supposed 
 
 that they travel in a straight line, for they are come for 
 
 better fare than Bafl^n's Bay can provide, and surround all 
 
 the islands and islets on that extensive coast hunting and 
 
 fishing. They travel comparatively slowly, perhaps 14 miles 
 
 a day, but there is a method in their movements. They 
 
 may be described as percolating through these islands ; first 
 
 (as at Xeparktok, Cape Mugford), there will be a few seals 
 
 passing in a day, about the "J.^th of October, and the 
 
 number will increase gradually until the middle or end of 
 
 November, when the ice arrives and all the nets have to be 
 
 taken in. 
 
 The fishermen describe them as passing along in " little 
 
 strings," but it is a double one. 
 
 The seals have their enemies like other animals, and the 
 Bhark and narwal are two of them ; the bear on 'y reaches 
 them on the ice. It seems as if the Hood seal had kindly 
 come across from Cape Farewell, to look after their weaker 
 brethren and pilot them to their destination ; and they 
 certainly do give them the preferential situation, namely, 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
16 
 
 the inshore, where the best feeding is obtainable; and the 
 sharks and narwal are certainly outside. But when they 
 made their regulations, like the wild geese, man had not 
 become a prircipal factor, so the shore was qnite safe. 
 To-day it is very different, man has decimated the Harp seal, 
 on account of his situation inshore, and the Hood has com- 
 paratively gone free. But the law of the seal altereth not; 
 like the geese, they still fly like a V, and the seals carry out 
 their parallel lines. Wherever there is a string of Harps 
 passing to the southward, between October and January, 
 there will be found their fellow travellers, the Hood seal, 
 always a little to the eastward, moving parallel with 
 them ! even if the couvoy they have travelled six hundre( 
 miles to protect, and migrate with, is reduced in numbers 
 to a very skeleton of the hundreds of thousands of Harp 
 eeals that moved to the south previous to 1860. This 
 description cf the " hand-in-hand " migration of the P.'oca 
 Greenland ica and the Ci/sfophora Cristata may possibly be 
 regarded as treating the subject in a spirit of levity ; but 
 such is not the intention; it is a graphic, but true represen- 
 tation of the journey of these two varieties to the 
 Newfoundland banks — one, apparently protecting the other 
 from outside molestation. In the Cabot Strait the Ciistata 
 assumes the westward, or outside position, and the Greenlan- 
 dica, in to the Newfoundland shore. 
 
 The question that arises from this dual line of progression 
 is, whether this peculiarity has been noticed on the East 
 Greenland coast, or in the Antarctic ? 7n the former case 
 considerable light should be thrown on ti^e subject, as the 
 fishery is old ; but the possible inhabitants can hardly be 
 
17 
 
 considered as permanent — only transitory fishermen ; and 
 this would deprive them of many opportunities of observa- 
 tion. The writer assumes a migration of some description 
 along that coast ? The ice masters he has spoken to, have 
 never mentioned the subject of migration. Groups, or 
 bodies of seals, are all that he has heard of. The Antartic 
 bodies of other varieties have been followed by the Dundee 
 fleet, but no particulars have reached the writer. 
 
 If this conjunction of the two bodies of seals obtains in 
 other latitudes, it may be considered as a recognised habit ; 
 but if on the contrary no such evidence i.s adduced, then we 
 are compelled to admit the method of " proceeding " is 
 singular to these waters, and may possibly be derived from 
 circumstances which took place previous to the present 
 century, and influenced by climatic changes. 
 
 It will be evident that the possibilities of observation are 
 not only frequent in these waters, on account of a resident 
 population, but extended over a century : whilst in other, 
 and wilder ranges of these animali, no such accurate 
 observations of movement, and habit are possible. 
 
 In the days of the sailing craft, the seals got a " close 
 iime " occasionally, when the ships got jammed in the bays, 
 and the young " white coats " were fledged auJ got away ; 
 the introduction of steam simply meant certainty of 
 destruction. 
 
 In the year, 18-i4, a Scotchman of the name of Charle» 
 McNeill left Kirpon, where he had been fishin,? and sealing, 
 ani came down to a little cove inside Turnavik Island, on 
 tb« Labrador, called AUik ; here he had his seal net on the 
 north point of the cove, and began to look oui, for the 
 
18 
 
 striDgs of seals at .\c latter part of October— all according 
 to the season : if it was cold and early, perhaps the 25th or 
 1st November; if it was mild, latei. Bat as soon as the 
 " northern slob " came along he had to tako in his net, lest 
 the ice should sweep it away. 
 
 Now these are extracts from his sealing diary, of the date 
 when the slob came along, and, therefore, the end of the 
 string of seals, for they always precede this ice : — 
 
 1844. November 30th. 
 18 Ir.'). December 10th. 
 *1840. „ 25th. 
 
 A gap of fonr years. 
 
 1850. December 1-ith. 
 
 1851. „ KHh. 
 
 1852. .. 13th. 
 
 1853. November 26th. 
 
 1854. December 9th 
 
 1855. „ 9th. 
 
 1856. „ 1-ith. 
 A gap of two years. 
 
 1859. November 24th. 
 18G0. December 15th. 
 
 The writer endeavoured to obtain the next book to 1870. 
 He had to wait nearly a year to get the answer; but it was 
 lost, burnt, or destroyed. So there was no connection with 
 the Newfoundland dates, and unfortunately ^Ir. Metca f, of 
 Neparktok Bay, Cape ^Ingford, kept no diary ; consequently 
 a mean epoch had to be adopted. 
 
 At this bay rhocu Greenlandica were netted in consider- 
 able numbers ; very few old Cnstata, but plenty of youn,? 
 ones, two to four years old ; and a few Barhata, all yoang. 
 
 The year 1846 was exceptional. The slob did not arrive 
 until ten days after 1860, a late date ; and it did not appear 
 in a narrow stream a few miles wide, as it is generally 
 noticed, but it swept down in a body that could not be seen 
 over from the look-out at Allik eight hundred feet in 
 height. 
 
19< 
 
 If we omit 1846 becanso it is evident that S.E. winds 
 prevailed in the north, and the ice was pinned into the 
 coast, and stopped, perhaps at Capo Magford, possibly 
 Cape Dier, the mean eroch will bo represented by 
 December 9th, and a fluctuation on either side of twenty 
 days, when all the migrating body have passed to the south. 
 But there are always seals about this coast. As soon as the 
 winter is set in— about the New Year— and the standing 
 ice extends five or six miles to the eastward of Tarnavik 
 Island, ending in a straight edge, where the ice is slowly 
 moving to the south : the inhabitants drive out on their 
 commitiks and dogs, and " swatch " (hunt) in the pool? and 
 streams, in the ice for seals. They find only Cristnhi or 
 Barhatn, no Harp seals. Occasionally they meet a ViluUnn, 
 for they apparently like a little ice-hunting; but all these 
 seals are thin. The cbarar«ter of the ice changes nearly 
 every month. About the end of March it would be very 
 rough travelling. The writer never heard of young Cnstala 
 taken on the ice here ; they ouly ride in scattered spot?, 
 and always on the eastern edge, many miles from the 
 
 standing ice. 
 
 The probabilities strongly favour the statement that the 
 Hood seals do cross over from Cape Farewell to join the 
 migrating Harps. It is in the first place their home ; and 
 it can be shown that seals shot off Newfoundland, but not 
 killed, were found riding the Farewell ice only three 
 months after. That is to say, they had returned home to 
 shed their coats. Previous to 18G4, or before that date, the 
 Newfoundland sealers nsed a sealing gun, which was 
 charged with " four fingers of powder " and a number of 
 
»so 
 
 slugs, called scaling shot. At that time Scotch, Norwegian, 
 and Danish vessels followed the "bladder nose," i.e. Ciisiatug, 
 on the ice extending about -iO miles to the southward of 
 Farewell ; and all these men used the ballet, consequently 
 when they killed a seal with newly-cicatrised shot wounds, 
 and the shot inside, there could be little question as to 
 where that seal was shot. 
 
 The Hrst, or early narrow stream of seals arrive off Battle 
 Harbour about the middle or end of Xoveniber according to 
 the season, and continue passing along until about the New 
 Year, -when the ice "comes along." But this latter date 
 will satisfy the requirements of Cape Race, and possibly 
 Banquereux. It may be explained in this way: — On 
 January 6th, 1881, seals were noticed off St. John's. On 
 January 2nd the southern tail of the " northern slob " was 
 passing Battle Harbour on the Labrador, and the seals 
 always precede this ice. The difteience iu date is four 
 days ; the average speed of the ice is 13"8 miles per day* 
 Therefore. lo'8 multiplied by 4 gives the position of the ice 
 southward of Battle Harbour, or about Goose Cape, Hare 
 Bay, on January 6th. In other words, that dual line *' of 
 little strings of seals " extonded over 220 miic- of coast line 
 on that day. In the same way all the ' <.h n:. e passed 
 Helleisle by January Ist, with a variation in date of twenty 
 days. The entiaiice to the Strait of Belleisle is an 
 important point in the migration, for here the " short stout" 
 Harps turn in to the westward, following the Arctij current 
 along th, Labrador shore if the Strait, and some of the 
 Gulf Hoods take the middle, as in duty bound, parallel with 
 the Harps. 
 
21 
 
 That little word some, indicates here a doubtfulness, not 
 of their presence, but the question, should the " some " be 
 rendered " all "? It is a mooted point. 
 
 The harbours of Chateau IJay, Fortean, Lance h Loup, 
 and Bonne Hsnorancp, speak of a period previous to tho 
 present. A time in the early part of the last century, when 
 the old Breton fisliermen camo here to capture le morruha, 
 and were surprised to find the young seals minutely 
 examininp^ everything on the surface or below the water ; 
 they found they had an ear for music, and would rise to a 
 whistle, 80 they called them badiner do la mere. It was a 
 fatal curiosity that incited these fishermen to contrive some- 
 thing,not only to amuse, but to entrap the simple phoque. 
 This oblong network box, moored to the bottom, is supported 
 on the surface by four small casks and five or seven bladders ; 
 it has no cover, but the network door at tho end, stretched 
 on a wooden frame, is connected to the shore by a long rope 
 led to a capstan, so that the door can be closed as soon as 
 the seals are inside. It requires skill and constant watching, 
 but large numbers of seals used to be taken in the " seal 
 net." The Harp seal generally becomes dazed by his 
 awkward position, and is usually " meshed " in his endeavours 
 to extricate himself belo',-. The Hood seal, however, is not 
 80 easily caught, and often jumps the " head rope," and so 
 escapes : the most natural thing to do, considering it is level 
 with the water. In 1763 the Euglish, the Irish, and the 
 Jerseyman succeeded the French, and adopted his "seal 
 nets," and ideas of the seal, and also a portion of his language, 
 for they curtailed his pet expres.sion, into bad-Ia-mere, and 
 the natural transition to " bedlamer " quickl;- rollo./ed. This 
 
22 
 
 is the present name for a young seal, without reference to 
 variety, until they are five years old. It will be almost 
 needless to point out that this " net " embraces the story of 
 the seals, it is the little thread that guides. 
 
 The old Frerch name for Cape Banld was Cape de Grat, 
 " Hen-scratching Point"; but Cape Bauld is severed from 
 the northern peninsula by a narrow channel, and in the 
 fissure is nestled the little harbour and village of Kirpon, a 
 truly wild and curious place. Yet these poor people love 
 their rocky ice-girt home quite as much as some of their 
 forebears loved their Devonshire valleys. It is a rather 
 uncomfortable harbour when the ice is -unning through the 
 tickle ill June. 
 
 Forty-four year= ago, every salient point in the strait was 
 occupied by " seal nets " in November, and men standing by 
 the capstans, straining their eye& to see the approaching 
 stream of seals. The Harps seemed to dally in strait, the 
 change of living was so marked in this favourite fishing 
 ground. To-day all is chang(^d, experience has taught the 
 seah not to linger or approach the shore, too close. Ruined 
 capstans on the headlands, speak of the past; the nets are 
 few and far between. Competition has reduced the price of 
 oil. Petroleum, and vegetable oils, have taken the place of 
 seal ; and so, the skin has become the most valuable part 
 of the animal. 
 
 The northern peninsula of Newfoundland, is terminated 
 by a triangular-shaped island, rising steeply to the south in 
 a bold and rugged summit ; but jutting out into the 
 Atlantic, as a narrow bill. This is Cape Bauld ; one of the 
 most bare, bleak, ice and storm-beaten capes in North America. 
 
23 
 
 This barren point has been in past years, the theatre of a 
 seal fishery, probably unique in i^s simplicity and excep- 
 tional character. It has a history in the early part of this 
 century, no doubt, but it is uawritten ; and the circum- 
 stances that introduced this brief sketch into this paper, are 
 a remembrance of the past. About fifteen or seventeen 
 years ago, this fishery was in existence; possibly a little is 
 done to-day, but it can only be on a very small scale. The 
 appliances were two small skiffs, several active young men, 
 and the Gulf sheet, and Eastern ice ; which may be said to 
 be always swirling round the cape from January to June. 
 The knowledge required by the ice master of Cape Bauld, 
 was " when not to attempt to take the seals." la other 
 ■words, he had to understand the probable course the ice 
 would take, with every wind that blew : for the direction of 
 the wind modifies, and sometimes arrests, the actio^. of the 
 tides and currents. He had to so arrange the time of 
 departuic from the shore, that the turn of the current would 
 bring him back to a reasonable distance from the Cape. 
 The danger was the wind changing in its direction, and 
 sweeping the men and seals into the Atlantic, and the 
 difliculty of rescuing them on an ice-clad ocean is more easy 
 to suppose than describe. It is sufficient to say that many 
 have lost their lives in this way. One of the curious 
 features of the fishery was that three-quarters of the seals 
 obtained were Gulf Harps ; although they were derived 
 from ice extending out, either from Point Ferrolle or west- 
 ward of Shecatica, distant about 87 miles and 120 miles 
 from Cape Bauld. Yet the vicinity of this Cape has always 
 been famous for an inshore patch of eastern seals. These 
 
24 
 
 men do obtain a number of eastern seals ; but the steamers 
 get the lion's share. Again, both eastern and western seals 
 are obtained at Cape Bauld, from the Belleisle Strait with a 
 N.W. wind, providing tliat the wind has been blowing east- 
 ward of N.N.E, three or four days previous. To entertain 
 the reason of this would exceed the limits of this paper ; but 
 it illustrates the peculiar features of this fishery. The 
 nursery of both varieties of the Phoca Greenlandica, and 
 occasionally some of the Cristata, are wheeled into the 
 vicinity of Cape Bauld by the combined forces of the wind, 
 the cuiTent, and the tide; but the wind preponderates in 
 directive force in ^March and April, and this is the period 
 for harvesting the seals. 
 
 Cape Bauld is said to " split the seals," but it is remarked 
 by the lighthouse keeper of Belleisle, that a large body are 
 often observed passing S.E. of that island, and it is very 
 probable that this represents the eastern stream of pinnipeds 
 moving towards the White Islands, Groais Island, Belle 
 Island, Horse Island, and Cape St. John. The island of 
 Belleisle has a prior claim on ice splitting : for 15 or 20 
 miles X.E. of this island, the stream divides and the western 
 ice is drawn into the Belleisle Strait. The seals follow all 
 the sinuosities of this coast, including White Bay, and seal 
 nets have beon constantly used on the salient points ; so that 
 the varieties obtained for; an excellent guide. From Cape 
 John to Cape Bonavista the^ continue following the 7oast 
 line, surrounding all the islands and arms, urless the r, inte'' 
 is cold and the " bay slob " filled into the tickles and 
 channels in a solid sheet. But the " seal nets " fail after 
 
25 
 
 Fogo Island is passed, so that accuiate information cannot 
 be given. 
 
 The old masters of the ice, each as Azariah Munden, 
 Henry Knight, Isaac Bartlett senior, all speak of the seaJa 
 surrounding the large indentations, such as Trinity and 
 Conception Bays, previous to 1850: which agrees with 
 Captain A. Jackman's theory, that they follow the inshore 
 stream of the Arctic current from Cape Walsinghara to 
 Cape Race, and it may be that the "principal factor" 
 in all the modifications of the habit of the seal, has rendered 
 the journey unnecessary, by removing the fish, for the seal 
 has come here to live. At any rate they have long forsaken 
 surrounding these deep bays; they cut across from point to 
 point, and reach Capo Race at an early date of the year. 
 The vessels approaching the coa^t in January, notice the 
 seala long distances from the land, enjoying their brief 
 holiday. They may be observed on the banks any time after 
 the new year, and it is on this acjcount that many suppose 
 that a body of seals make a straight line fi-om Belleisle to 
 Cape Freels, and on to the bank". The seals are seen on all 
 the southern banks, such as the Green Bank, St. Pierre 
 Bank, Banquereux, and even Sable Island. ]^[any years 
 ago the assistant lighthouse keeper on Sable Island was a 
 Newfoundlander, and familiar with the seals ; so it is evident 
 that the Hoods and Harps, reach down to latitude 44° X. 
 as the most southern limit, and always in Arctic water, for 
 the ice is often in the latitude of Cape Race in January. 
 
 We have now reached the most perplexing part of the 
 migration, for some of the sealers in the Cabot Strait are 
 of the opinion that a body of seals pass south in January, 
 
S6 
 
 OP earlier, for ii is before the river ice comes down, and it 
 is supposed that they are the seals noticed on Banquereux 
 and Sable Island. And it is also supposed that a body of 
 the Eastern Hoods, having finished their feeding on the 
 banks, pass through the Cabot Strait to ride the ice in the 
 
 Gulf. 
 We have nothing to guide us except the presence of the 
 
 seals, but there is no question on that point. 
 
 At a very moderate comrmtation at leu-* a million seals 
 are feeding on these banks for a month every year. To 
 compute the fish they may consume would be trespassing 
 on a different questior., hut it represents a large voyage if 
 they only consumed threo fish a day. 
 
 It will be noticed that the seals have been absent 
 from the ice two months and a half, from the end of October 
 to the middle or end of Januar;- when there is often ice 
 near the Virgin Rocks. The Hai seal very seldom tres- 
 passes on the preserves of the Vitulina ; they have however 
 been seen catching trout at the mouth of a brook in New 
 World Island, but they never sleep on shore. Yet like 
 other mammals, they must rest ; and in the absence of i-e, 
 they turn on their back, fold their hands, expand their hind 
 flippers, and sleep with their head thrown bad' pillowed 
 on the -water. There is a close connection between the 
 Greenlandica and the Vitulina ; both produce a white coat, 
 both have cloven tongues ; the offspring of both are very 
 helpless for a month, and they often associate, and travel 
 together. Wo have little knowledge of the Cristata, they 
 are an offshore seal, but probably adopt the sn sleeping 
 posture as the Greenlandica during their absence from the ice. 
 
27 
 
 T'l i ^ the months of January and February, the light- 
 he -hj .. >eper of Cape Race, reports large bodies of seals 
 seen off the Cape, but not often after the middle of February. 
 It is supposed that the seals of the eas^, coast leave for the 
 north early in the month. They have been seen on February 
 16th, passing across the mouth of Triaity Bay, in a long 
 straggling body two or three miles in length, old and young, 
 with head out of the water, and rushing along at a great 
 pace. But this account must have taken place when the bay 
 was clear of ice, and it is not always so in February. The 
 seals always travel inshore if possible, but they will not 
 approach the coast if the ice is inshore ; they appear to 
 travel fast, as they journey north. During cold seasons, 
 with a heavy ice shed and easterly winds, they evidently 
 experience considerable difficulty in reaching north of Fogo 
 Island. Perhaps, they delayed too long on the banks, but 
 in 1880 they probably rode the ice well south of C. Bouavista, 
 for the seal ice came in close to St. John's, on April 2nd and 
 3rd, and seals were hauled ou shore, but this was a remark- 
 able occurrence; it was only a patch however. 
 
 The circumstances of the quantity of ice inshore, and the 
 direction of the wind, greatly modify the position where 'le 
 seals mount the ice to breed. It is a difficult subject to 
 explain. 
 
 The two bodies of eastern seals, which travel side by side 
 from Cape Race to Fogo Island, generally reach the entrance 
 to the Belleisle Strait before the 'JSth of February, for there 
 is a good deal to consider and arrange. In the first place 
 they always ride "free ice," i.e. ice in no way connected 
 with the land, but floating down with the Arctic current; 
 
28 
 
 but this first desideratum necessitates their taking particular 
 notice of the position of the ice and the direction of the wind ; 
 for if the wind happens to be easterly, and the ice pressed 
 inshore, they will not approach the coast : they will move 
 outside. In the second place, the Phoca Greenlnndica is an 
 ice-boring seal ; they seek for a particular form of ice, iu 
 extensive sheets, seldom more than three inches thick, to 
 deposit their young on — that is to say, freshly-mad-^ ice, soft 
 and easy to bore. It does not necessarily follow that they 
 always obtain it; there bave been seasons when they have 
 mounted ice barely three-quarters of an inch in thickness — 
 ice that would not bear a man ; but it is the depth of winter, 
 the seals know that the ice will continue " making " 
 (thickenini;) for a fortnight or three weeks longer. The 
 Harp seal is a gregarious animal ; the mothers all like to be 
 together, close to one another, although there may be 250,000 
 in a "patch," or a congregation of seals on one sheet of ice 
 several miles in length and breadth. It is generally found 
 that there are two, or even three, " patches " of seals besides 
 a northern patch to be hereinafter mentioned. But during 
 average jears there is a difference of opinion as to the 
 presence of the third. Yet there are circumstances in con- 
 nection with the "seal ice" that induce experienced ice 
 masters to consider that there must be a patch of seals that, 
 have long evaded the ships, even if they are all swept away 
 now, with twenty ice-hunting steamers after them. The 
 circumstances are these : — About the middle or end of April 
 ships are constantly seeking about the ice, between 48° and 
 51° or 52" X., for old or young seals. During their wander- 
 ings in a body that is constancy shifting its position, and 
 
29 
 
 not always south, but turning and rolling round as it takes 
 the shore, and perhaps wheels the most southern portion of 
 a largo body -j the north, these ships occasionally come 
 ac;.0S8 ice that has been used for a nursery and forsaken by 
 the young seals as soon as they could swim. An intelligent 
 ice master always takes a very careful survey of this ice, 
 because it has a particol&r bearing upon the future voyage, 
 and he can always tell if it has been used by Harps°or 
 Hoods. So long as ice of this description is occasionally 
 found--for it can only be an accident for a vessel to meet 
 it— so long is there hope for the continuance of the fishery, 
 as it shows that a remnant has escaped ; and when it i» 
 considered that this particular position on the eastern sea- 
 board of America is the only known retiring place or 
 nursery, of the Phoca Greenlandica, it may be considered of 
 some importance. 
 
 What does it matter to the Crl.tafa, or Hood seal, where 
 it rides? Any rough piece of ice satisfies their wants. 
 They ride the Labrador ice, from Cape Chidley to tho 
 Belleisle Strait in scattered patches. Surely five hundred 
 miles of coast is enough for one variety, not to speak of the 
 West Greenland coast. The writer would seriously ask. 
 What were the circumstances that induced a wild, quarrel- 
 some seal like the Cri.taia, to associate with a quiet and a 
 beautiful peal like the Greenlandica / The scattered, isolated 
 positions of the families on the ice exhibit their natural 
 habit: they cannot bear the presence of their own species. 
 How -s it, that two particular groups of the Cristata, cross 
 over from (Ireenland to accompany the Greenlaudlca in its 
 yearly migration, whilst thousands breed elsewhere, without 
 
30 
 
 the delicate attention, which these two groups exhibit to 
 the Grcen^andlca ? Or. is it not reasonable to sappose. that 
 this peculiar companionship of t.o var^etxes of the Haxr 
 .eal--comiDg from very different situations, one a deep 
 We Arctic basin, and the other a stormy cape, und a coast 
 wrapped in perpetual ice; for the Hood seal never has been 
 Ln to ride Labrador ice to change its coat. M always 
 returns to Cape Farewell ;-may not these circumstances be 
 attributed to a slow process such as we are wxtnessxng to- 
 dav a gradual intermingling of the young seals, just as the 
 voang Barlata follows the migration. Only, in their case 
 the opportunity is past, for the climate of Xewfoundland is 
 not suited to the Barhata. But has not the climate of 
 Greenland changed in the past nine hundred years ? It is 
 fitill rising ouc of tha v'ater, and exposing a larger surface, 
 ma^: its own winter of snow and glaciers. Why dia the 
 Norsemen call it, what it certainly is not to- day, Greenland ^ 
 Is it not v3asonable to suppose, that in like manner Cape 
 Farewell' was not always i^e-bound, and therefore unBtted 
 for the habitation of the Crlsiata; that, as the continent 
 rose out of the water, the seal drew down V. East Green- 
 land coast in a S.W. direction: and eventually reached 
 Farewell; and a slow but gradual intermingling of the 
 .ounc. seals of East Greenland, an^ West Greenland varieties, 
 .ndured some of the older members to join in an annual pro- 
 cession of 1,300 miles; and as time went on. the shoH eu 
 from Farewell to Chidley was initiated, and a larger number 
 crossed over. The ancient ice masters of 1800. noticed their 
 .. bladder nose ; " and now the remembrance of their absence, 
 in Davis Strait, is all that is left, of a chain of events pro- 
 
\* 
 
 
 rK^ 
 
 ' .i 4 »: f' \^Jr'^^ 
 
 t 
 i 
 
 it 
 
 duciug a carious feature in iLe animal kingdom. In brief, 
 there possibly was a time when the P/toca Oreenlandicl 
 migrated alone. 
 
 The circumstances surrounaing the Harp seal before thej 
 mount the ice have been briefly touched upon. The sitoation 
 may be described as embracing the coast between Cape 
 Bluff on the Labrador, and Cape Bauld, Newfor.ndland. Bat 
 it must be remembered that during exceptional seasons 
 many of the seals may not be able to reach as far north, bat 
 they make every effort to do so. About the year 1863, a 
 straight edge of ice extended from Round Hill Island to 
 Funk Island ; it was a solid jam until a late date. In March 
 1877 the difficulty was to find any ice in March in the 
 vicinity of the coast. But it only meant a prevalence of 
 X.W. winds. The seals were taken 150 miles to the east, 
 ward of Belleisle; there was plenty of ice in the Atlantic 
 and plenty I. the Gulf. On May 3rd S.S. Falcon jammed 
 in Sidney. Showing the very variable character of the 
 body of ice, in different years. 
 
 During an average season the seals may mount the ice 
 30 to 40 miles eastward of Battle Harbour or Belleisle • 
 apparently they ride the ice more northerly during westerly 
 wmds, or a light ice shed. Occasionally thev must mount 
 in the vicinity of Cape Bluff; and in harder weather 20 to 
 40 miles off Cape Bauld. Now this refers to the inside 
 patch of Harp seals only. Eastward of the land, say 70 or 
 90 miles, there is another patch of Harp seals, which are 
 supposed to have a certain directive connection with the 
 inside body, but the exact bearing and distance --om that 
 patch may be discreetly left to the ice masters ; o.casionallj 
 
 c 
 
32 
 
 the eastern patch is a long distance off hhore. There is, 
 however, one thing quite certain, and that is, that the Hood 
 seals will ride :iO to '>0 miles N.B. from the Harp seals, but 
 they will ride rougher ice. Besides these bodies of seals, 
 there is the possibility of a third patch gotnewhere in the 
 Atlantic, and it is the fervent hope of the writer, that it is 
 i.ot a hypothetic body, but that its position and numbers 
 niay never be kuown. 
 
 When it is considered that this fishery has been carried 
 on for probably a century, and the weight of the denudation 
 has fallen upon the Harp seal— the insh.ore seal of New- 
 foundland— it may be considered surprising, that these 
 animals have not resented the continuous slaughter by 
 endeavouring to find a geographical position for their 
 nursery more distant from the haunts of man. Unfortu- 
 nately for the seals, the entrance to the Belleisle Strait 
 appears to offer peculiar facilities for the fn.rtherauce of the 
 object they have in hand. Saving Cape Walsingham, which 
 may be dismissed as wholly unsuitable on account of the 
 body of ice pressing south at the end of February, and the 
 absence of food, there is no other position on the Labrador, 
 that combines, 1st, a change in the direction o? the stream 
 sutftciont to break the ice and permit of its dispersiot. or 
 removal ; and '.'nd, a division of the current into three 
 branches capable of dispersing in a fanlike manner the 
 fragments shed from the side of the body ice; for it 
 continues its original course in a broken, but homogeneous 
 mass for some distance, or several miles beyond the turning 
 point at Round Hill Island. 
 
 This suction into the Belleisle Strait, forms open water 
 
83 
 
 at the junction of the streams N.E. of Belleisle, and allows 
 sheet ice to be made in large quantities, which form one of 
 the pHncipal re(iaiiemeut8 of the Harp seal, which rides 
 the inshore ice. This featuie in the behaviour of the ice, 
 due to the weakening of the western edge, by bodies of ice 
 being shed to the westward by the combined action of the 
 cuiTents, tides, and occasionally and effectively the wind, 
 has been known and utilised by the French for many years. 
 The Hshinjr fleet endeavour to enter the ice in the latitude 
 of Cape Bauld or a little futthcr north, because they find 
 the body often loose ana open on account of this weakness, 
 but they do not always succeed. 
 
 But there is something more than the formation of sheet 
 ice in this " mounting to ride " position of the inshore patch 
 cf the \rp seals. The old masters of the ice always 
 maintained that these seals rode inshore, if the circum- 
 stances of wind and ice permitted them to do so, and that 
 they "mounted" generally eastward of Battle Island, or 
 Cape Bauld, sometimes as far north as Cape Bluff, but seldom 
 further south than Cape Bauld. This statement will be 
 probably approved by a considerable number of the ice 
 masters to-day, but not all. The circumotunces of wind and 
 ice are more diP\cult ; but if the ice is inshore and free, and 
 the wind anywhere between south-east and north, by the 
 •westward: then the probabilities are, that the seals will 
 mount between 30 and 45 miles off shore. Of course there 
 must be objections to the statement. They would not 
 probably ride so close, after a S.E. gale with the sea in the 
 ice; or possibly, if it was blowing hard at north. Otherwise 
 in an ordinary season, they would not leave the coast. 
 
 c 2 
 
34 
 
 On the contrary, if the wind was eastward of mrth, round 
 to S.B., they woald probobly keep off shore; and if there 
 was no ice inshore, they would have to find it ontsido, 
 perhaps GO or 100 miles to the east, bui about latitude 52 X. 
 Packed ice inshore they always avoid ; it must be " fi-ee " — 
 and then they will ride outside. This position of, say, 40 
 miles cast of Cape Bnuld, or Bailie Island, will place the 
 seals either on the western edge of the Arctic current, or » 
 few miles inshore, but in both cases in the influence of the 
 S.W, current, which passes a few miles east of Belleisle, 
 Capo Bauld, Groais Island, Cape St. John, to the Little 
 Foffo Islands. The current is about 20 miles wide, so that 
 it leaves a triungular space of eddy water between the 
 Arctic current, and eastern edge of the S.W. current; and 
 this eddy water ia always freezing the pans of ice together 
 durinsr cold weather, as there is ■•o little motion. This 
 triangular space, enclosed by two currents of running ice, is 
 oft Q "fast" even in moderately cold weather, if the wind 
 is light N.W. with snow, and a temperature about zero. A 
 siiigle calm night a* the end of February, wlLu a temperatur*. 
 of eight or ten below zero, will transform this slowly -revol- 
 ving collection of pans of ice into a serious obstruction for a 
 sealing steamer— in fact, a solid jam. This is a peculiar 
 and well-known position ; and it will be noticed, that if the 
 seals ride to the east of Belleisle. say 40 miles— l)ecause it is 
 considered that this position i? .I'tcu occupied by the inshore 
 Harps— then the body must either drift in the S.U'. current 
 round this triangular space, which it often does, or obtain a 
 west or S.W. wind to take it into the Atlantic, the object 
 to be obtained. During moderate seasons, the seal ice often 
 
•66 
 
 follows this S.W. cairent, and the seals are faken 30 or GO 
 miles eastward of Fogo Island or at the Fnuk Island, or ofF 
 Cape Bonavista. For this S.W. current is generally swifter 
 tha.i the Arctic current, as it is a continuation of the inshore 
 stream of the Labrador current, which may be said to com- 
 mence at Cape Walsingham,and is always increased in speed 
 by winds eastward of N. by E. This current surrounds 
 Newfoundland, and is an important factor in transporting 
 the seal ice across the mouths of all the bays on the east 
 coast. The wind is the principal directive agent, however, 
 at this time of the year; it rules the ice, and therefore th» 
 winter of Newfoundland. But this position of the seals 
 mounting the ice eastward of Hell^isle is peculiar, on account 
 of the variable winds wh-.h obtaii at the month of tht 
 Belleisle Strait ; although the seals lide either at the division 
 Gi" the two currents, or a little further south, and may be 
 regarded as "cornered" or retarded in cold winters by the 
 triangular space of ice, for there can be no doubt that the 
 St ' ice is often detained off Belleisle ; yet the west winds 
 out of the Belleisle Strait, compensate to a great extent for 
 the restricted course they must pursue, riud enable them to 
 pass to the eastward. 
 
 The prevailing wind on the Labrador coast is X.W., with 
 short changes to X.B. and S.E. A X.E wind is very com- 
 mon in March, simply because the wind is usually blowing 
 " off " a body of ice, and the ice is always east of Cape 
 Bauld or Newfoundland in March ; and this approaches a 
 subject of wide importance both to seals and men. We 
 have noticed that there are seasons such as 1863, 1875, 1882, 
 and 189G, when Bathn's Bay appears to overwhelm the east 
 
36 
 
 coast of Newfoundland with i continuous winter from 
 V ember to June ; and, if the old reports are correct, these 
 .isons were intensified previous to 1850— at least, it is 
 jertaai that Arctic anin'als frequented the Gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, and the east coast of this island in greater num- 
 bers than they do to-day. Polar bears, foxes, the walrus, 
 and the Phnm Barhnta rode the ice in much larger numbers ; 
 they were comn.on in the Gulf, but not now. The question 
 of volume appears to swallow up all other considerations on 
 these occasions ; even the wind appears powerless, although 
 it must be regarded as potential in assisting the ice to these 
 
 fehores. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the N.W. winds assist in 
 keeping the body of ice oif, or clear of, the Labrador coast 
 until the end of .lanuary : and r has been travelling fioni 
 Cape Walsingham for seventy days. Yet it does not appear 
 to affect the Labrador coast to any extent until July and 
 Aa<^u&t: but as soon as the volume reaches the dividing 
 point at Round Hill Island, and Bellcisle, it appears to cast 
 a pall upon all these lands and waters, including the Gulf 
 of St. Lawrence. X.K. and east winds reign supreme ; the 
 west winds in the Bellcisle Strait struggle as far as Blanc 
 Sablon, or Forteau, but faU there ; the sea of ice extending 
 250 and 300 miles eastward of Cape Bauld swallows it up. 
 The seals struggle to get north to their appointed riding 
 ground, and, notwithstanding a sea of adversity, two of the 
 T.atches ride not far from the old haunt, whatever happens. 
 The laggards may be obliged to mount south of Fogo Island, 
 but the main bodies arc in t»lieir places GU to 100 miles east 
 of Belleisle and the attendant Hoods 50 miles to the N.E. 
 
37 
 
 Generally speaking, they do not find their way very far 
 south on these occasions— the Fank Island is usually their 
 limit ; but occasionally, as iu 188:2, the seals were taken early 
 in April 220 miles S.S.E of Cape Race. White Bay, and 
 Notre Dame usually received them ; they are pressed into 
 the coast, the inshore ice is crushed up, and wasted away 
 with the outside pressure, and the seal ice slowly moves into 
 the bays. 
 
 Occasionally, it is supposed, that tlie greater part of the 
 Kebrnary ice is drawn into the Belleisle Strait; on one 
 occasion the Hood seals rode the sheet ice, and bored like 
 the Harps, only ten miles distant from that body; because, 
 as the sealers reported, there was no more ice. That tliey 
 saw no more at the time, about the end of March, is quite 
 possible. 1 hey had been seeking for some days, and struck 
 the patch about 170 miles S.E. of Cape Banld. But a N.W. 
 wind will account for the disappearance; it is very seldom 
 that the Tiiidway f-tream of ice from Davis Strait is 
 dissipated by the end of Jlarch ; it may be a long way olf 
 shore however. 
 
 The reader is invited to suppose himself on the ice about 
 -iO miles to the eastward of Battle Harbour in latitude 
 o2^ 20' N. There is nothing to bo seen but ice, on the 
 horizon are one or two icebergs, and in the middle distance 
 a streak of rough ice with one or two small bergs about 
 18 or 20 feet high, called " half i.sland pans," with some 
 hummocky ice close to them. In the foreground is a level 
 sheet of ice two or three miles broad, intersected with 
 streaks of ice of a rougher character, and here and there a 
 lump sticking up two or three feet. To the west there is a 
 
3S 
 
 streak of water about 50 feet wide, endinj^j in a lake tendingf 
 to the S.W. and a nutitoer of seals playing about in it. This 
 level sheet of ice is one of the nurseries of the Harp seal. 
 It is well clear of the land, slowly drifting? in the current. 
 There may be 'tO miles of ice to the eastward, all intersected 
 with lakes, pools, and lanes of water. 
 
 The seals are now mountinj^ the ice, and for another 
 month they may bo considered as being the sport of the 
 winds and currents; anything may take place, the ice 
 may be driven into Atlantic storms, or split upon the coast, 
 rent asunder, and driven hither and thither ; so that the 
 subsequent proceedings are rather difficult to forecast. It 
 may often transpire that the seal ice drifts one hundred 
 miles to the eastwai-d of Newfoundland, before the young 
 seals are able to take to the water. Or they may dnve into 
 White Bay or Notre Dame, or even Bonavista Bay. There 
 is time to do a good deal of drifting about ; driving into 
 White Bay for a few days, then blown out, and drifted off 
 Cape St. John, and back into the Atlantic. 
 
 The first duty of the seal is ice-boring. The ice is clawed 
 into a small hole, the elf ws planted firmly in the hole, and 
 body revolv(!d round by the hind flippers; it is a double 
 purchase and expeditious. I'he hole permits the seal lo 
 come up close to tlie youn^, white coat and suckle it. The 
 old seals fish all day, and return to the ice in the evening, 
 when the little ones are crying very much like the human 
 infant. The old seals bark. Imagine an anxious mother, 
 after a hard day's fishing, first finding the ice, which may 
 have drifted a few miles since the norning, and then select- 
 ing her own particular hole out of 250,000. It very rarely 
 
39 
 
 happens that fish, or food ot any clescripfion, is seen on the 
 ice; everything is consumed in or under the water. 
 
 The young Harp weighs 7 to 9 pounds, and measures 
 about 2ft. to -Jft. Gin. The hair is woolly. It has a small 
 V-shaped slit in the tip of its tongue. It is helpless, and often 
 drowns. It remains for aboat 12 or 1-4 days in the .same 
 position it was born; the heat of its body melts a hollow 
 beneath it. It increases in weight about H lbs. to 31bs. a day, 
 depending upon the weather. If it is a fine, quiet, mild 
 season they grow slowly. If it is a cold, stormy, bitter 
 winter, with plenty of snow, and sharp changes to S.W. with 
 heavy rain, shifting into N.W. wiih frost and snow, it grows 
 rapidly. It likes being buried in the snow, and eats 
 quantities of it. When it is about 25 or 27 days old the 
 pelt, or skin and fat, will weigh from 4."dbs. to 601bs , all 
 depending upon the weather. It begins to lose flesh as soon 
 as it changes its coat to pearl grey with brown spots. It 
 requires a few days to learn to s.vim and paddle about, and 
 then the mother appears to forsake it. The young seal im- 
 mediately steers N.W. for the land, resting on pans of ice, 
 and very foolishly sleeping in the sun, where both bears and 
 men destroy it. As soon ar, they reach inshore and obtain 
 food they " bow the current " for Bjiffins Bay: it's a long 
 journey, but tl. .y are supposed to reach there at the end of 
 May or in June. With reference to the period of gestation, 
 the general reports point to the end of .Miiich or the first week 
 in April for pairing off. The old seals begin to ride the 
 heavy ice to change their coats early in :\Iay, and that is a 
 period of weakness, so that it is improbable after that date, 
 because when they leave the ice they beat inshore and 
 
40 
 
 ■work down the coast. It is considered probable that forty- 
 seven -weeks wiil app-oach the period. Twins are not 
 „ommon, bat they are se<'n occasionally. In March, 1881, a 
 young Harp seal was taken off the ice, with two complete 
 b'^dies joined at the side, bat only four flippers; it was ll;^ 
 inches long. After leaving the ice the young seals become 
 rapidly thin, owing to the great exertion of swimming, and 
 are called " beating seals." They are netted in numbers 
 travelling north, as they follow the coast the whole way 
 when.it is clear of ice, and the Labrador, is often a little 
 open in.vliore in June. 
 
 These remarks are applicable to all the Harp seals 
 whether in the Gulf of St. Lawrence or on the east coast of 
 Newfoundland ; all the seals lide the ice about the end of 
 February, or early in March. The jld sealing musters used 
 a particular day to represent the approximate birthday of 
 their "Lest friends "—February 'JBth— and considered the 
 young seals \,ould be usually clear of the ice about April 
 10th. The no ■thern patch of seals are generally seen about 
 twenty to thirty miles eastward of the Spotted Island or 
 Cape Blulf. It is only a small patch of Harps, and the 
 accounts arc diversified. Good seals have boen taken 
 in the strait, for they usually drift in between IJelle- 
 i.slc and the main, as they ride near to the shore. But the 
 general account represents a small yellow seal with curly 
 hair, born at the end of March or early in April. Many ice 
 mafe,ters consider that they represent the young of the bed- 
 lamers of the previous year. This patch of seals is not seen 
 every year however. The latest well authenticated date 
 for an abnormally born Haip seal is May 1st. 
 
mm^m. 
 
 41 
 
 As soon as the old seals mount the ico, the bedlamers of 
 various ages retire to ice situated ten or fifteen miles S.E. 
 and S.W. true, of the main breeding ice ; the males to the 
 S.E. and the females to the S.W. ; and they remain about 
 until possibly the old seals forsake the ice. ]?at the body of 
 ice may soon alter its relative position ; so long as it remains 
 '■ free " there may be some slight directive 'connexion, just 
 as the Hood seals rode X.E. of the Harps to-day; but to- 
 morrow anything may take place to alter these appropriate 
 arrangements. A S.E. ga^e might cast the ice off shore, 
 and complely disatTange the bedlaraer po.ution. Or a N.E. 
 wind might close the ice with the land, and bring the 
 Hood seals south of the Harps and inshore ; or a west gale 
 would take the whole body to sea. The persistency of the 
 relative bearings of one group of seals from another, and 
 also from particular po.sitions on the coast duricg ordinary 
 season.s, is one of the remarkable features in this migration ; 
 that on the day (so to speak) when the final consummation 
 of a long peregrination has been completed, that the two 
 separate and distinct bodies of seals should occupy relative 
 bearings from each other like drilled soldiers, and this under 
 often very trying and difficult circumstances, has been, and is 
 now, the marvel of the ice-raasters ; and these, so to speak, 
 selected positions (probably by the Harp seals) in c, fluvatile 
 body, at the mercy of the winds and currents, which mf^y be 
 disarranged or divided not many days or hours after the 
 plan had been carried o!it. 
 
 The bees and ants show great skill and p.iseverance in 
 arranging for their young, but their difficulties are child's 
 play to the war of the elements these animals have to 
 
4-J 
 
 contend with. Seasoi s like lSG:i, 1875, or 1882, try the 
 courage ac ' perseverance of men, born to contend witli the ice 
 and sea ; bat where would the;i be if the " plan of the seals " 
 was not carried out with marvellous precision ? — em- 
 phatically " clean," i e., empty. 
 
 It is only an extraordinary absence of ice that induces 
 the Hood seal to become grej^arious ; they are habitually 
 bad tempered, and con3e<iaently occupy five or six times the 
 area of the same number of Harps, so as to avoid collision 
 with their near relatives. Conse([uently they are found on the 
 eastern edge of the ice, among pools or streaks of water and 
 ix»ugh ice ; for they are not partial to boring, and must; 
 occupy positions near open water where thwy can fish. It 
 is a collection of little families of three to five scattered 
 over the ice as access to the water permits, nearly always 
 30 1o 50 yards apart, and often a much longer distance. 
 
 AVben these two eastern bodies of Hood seals are compared 
 with the scattered spots of seals on the Labrador ice 500 
 miles in extent, it is difficult to resist the thought what 
 induced these particular seals to become guardians or ser- 
 vants of the Harp. And when the Gulf Hoods are cou- 
 sidered, which ride fast sheet ice, ard bore like Harps, and 
 this several degrees south of any Hood seal in the northern 
 hemisphere : the question arises is this friendship or natural 
 selection ? The Stematopns Crittatus may be regarded as 
 one of the family. 
 
 There is little more to be said on the subject of time, as 
 the Hoods conform to the same dates as the Harps, excepting 
 the period that they remain on the ice ; for the young Hood 
 is not bcru a helpless " white coat," although it was 
 
43 
 
 clothed m white at one period of its existence, and like the 
 young Baihnta leaves the tolrens of its previous dress upon 
 the ice. The yonng Hood comes into the world fitted for 
 life's struggle, but renuiring growth and seasoning; yet in 
 all probability it if capable of taking the water a very few 
 hours after biith. At least in a well authenticated case the 
 mother snatched up the infant, born only a few hours, in her 
 arms, and plunged into the water. Yet they usually remain 
 on the ice about twenty or twenty-six days, to prepare 
 themselves for a long journey. The disappearance uf the 
 Hood seals of the eastern coast of Xewfouudland speaks of 
 a different home than Baffin's Bay. The bond of union or 
 service existing between the Hood and Harp during their 
 long migration, appears to be severed with the mounting of 
 the ice ; the subsequent proceedings of the body that 
 mutually bears them is independent of either Hoods or 
 Harps — it bears them to weal or woe. The bourn of the 
 Hood is Cape Farewell, or the west Gree .land coast, where 
 it rests, and fishes until a late date in September : when 
 the joui-ney to some point on the Labrador is cai-ried out, 
 and the forces reassemble to carry out the role of the Harp 
 in the annual procession to the Banks of Xewfouudland. 
 
 The enemies of the seals gather round the seal ice in con- 
 siderable numbers during the pei-iod of nursing. Sharks 
 and sword fish attack them under water, and the polar bear 
 and Arctic fox on the ice. But the bear is not a destructive 
 animal ; although the feast is large, they are noticed to take 
 only sufficient for their present want. The greater portion, 
 if not all the bears and foxes that ride the seal ice, mub^. 
 perfsh eventually. The evil day is put oft by a swim to a 
 
u 
 
 berg, or landing on Newfoundland, but occasiocally the 
 swim to the coast has been a very long one indeed, for their 
 power of endurance is great — probably 70 to 80 miles — and 
 sometimes they have been seen heading for the coast nearly 
 100 miles off shore. Wild ducks frequent the ice in large 
 numbers, and become very fat; but what they cat is a 
 difficult question to answer, unless it be the little pools of 
 milk by the young seals, or the remains of the bears' feast. 
 
 The Galf of St. Lawrence body, moving to the westward 
 in the Belleisle Strait, are difficult to follow after they pass 
 Bonne Esperance about the new year. It is their proclivity 
 to cling to the ice-bearing current, which retains a long 
 winter on this portion of the coast ; but the seals are 
 believed to spread themselves in the gulf until the ice-riding 
 period approaches, and are noticed at Anticcsti and the 
 western shore. About the year 1848 a group of Harp seals, 
 was reported to have taken up their residence between 
 Anticosti and the Mingan and Esquimaux Islands, and 
 remain there all the Buramer ; there is, however, no further 
 information about them : only, there is an ice riding seal 
 called the " Horse Head " on account of the shape of the 
 nose and mouth, which does not appear to be noticed in the 
 Belleisle Strait or the east coast of Newfoundland, where it 
 ought to be netted or taken on. the ice if it were migratory. 
 It is also reported to produce a white coat at the usual date, 
 and ride the ice westward of Mecatina. The sealers do not 
 consider that they are numerous. There is a specimen in 
 the museum at St. John's, Xcwt'oundland. 
 
 The seals are usually seen in the Cabot Strait in December, 
 but the date of their arrival appears to be inSucnced by the 
 
45 
 
 wind, and possibly the strength of the Arctic current ? iwing 
 
 past the east point of Anticosti. They may be described as 
 
 sensitive to the influence of the wind when hunting and 
 
 fishing, like the cattle, and fish. The lake trout is always 
 
 found away from the wind ; the wild cattle drive before the 
 
 storm; and so it is with the cod fish, and seal, wlio are 
 
 noticed on the northern peninsula to cross from point to 
 
 point of traall bays or inlets ia a strong offshore wind, as if 
 
 they understood that the fish would move out. In this case, 
 
 if the wind in the early days of December has been easterly 
 
 or northerly, the seals may arrive before the middle of the 
 
 month, but if they have been westerly or southerly, not 
 
 until the latter part. They appear to cross ever from the 
 
 eas- point of Anticosti to the Bird Island and the Xew- 
 
 foundlanu hhore. Whether these seals pass to the south across 
 
 Banquereux, and on to the Sable Island, cannot be stated ; 
 
 but they appear again iu the Cabot Strait about the 10th or 
 
 loth of February. The Hood seals are noticed in the middle 
 
 of the strait, moving Uj) lOwards the Bird Island, as they 
 
 ride the ice between St. Paul's Island and Bird Island. This 
 
 body is supposed by the most experienced ice masters, to 
 
 represent an influx of eastern seals, or a portion of the body 
 
 moving to the S.W. of Capo Race. One of the oldest ice 
 
 masters sailing to the Gulf fishery. Captain Aaron Forsey, 
 
 remarked that the seals were generally noticed coming into 
 
 Port aux Basque, about the 10th of February, and press out 
 
 with the wind, — a graphic description of their evanescent 
 
 character at this time. But these were Harp seals, only we 
 
 cannot say where they came from; they may have been 
 
 coasting about Earaea and the " western shore/' as the 
 
46 
 
 ! i 
 
 inhabitants call the south coast of this island, or they may 
 have been to the bai.ks ? The local wind at Port aux Basque 
 is S.K., even when the wind is evidently S.W. in the oflin^, 
 towards the Cape Breton sliore. Northerly and N.W. winds 
 with frost and snow are common in December, January and 
 February. It is a stormy cold place in winter. 
 
 It is supposed by some that the Hood seals, which ride 
 the ice off Point Rich, come through the Belleislc Strait, 
 and the St. Paul's seals come round Cape Race ; only the 
 northern patch of Hoods do not always ride Point Rich ice, 
 they sometimes ride in the vicinity of Watagheistic. 
 
 The Harp seals ride the ice in the Gulf in two patches, 
 one on the Newfoundla'^ " ore, from Point FeroUe to St. 
 John's Island, on ice extending three to five miles off the 
 rocks and islets, according to the season. The seals in the 
 Gulf, ride ice which they cont ' ^er is fast to the coast : 
 unfortunately for them, gales of wind often break off large 
 strips of ice, which in this case nearly always drift thro" jh 
 the Belleisle Strait. 
 
 The larger body, ride the ice on the Labrador coast, 
 extending from great Mecatina to "Watagheistic, on ice 
 reaching out four to seven miles from the rocks and islands, 
 all depending upon the winter. Some seasons there will be 
 very little ice, and occasionally the Gulf will be " fast " from 
 shore to shore for a few days. Then a Westerly gale will 
 set in, and the thin Gulf sheet ice, only three to five inches 
 thick, will rear up and raft in a surprising manner, often 
 burying the young seals, and piling up ten feet above the 
 water. These seals are a shorter and stouter variety than 
 the eastern patches, and ride ice which is to a certain extent 
 
47 
 
 OQiet, and without violent movement, unless torn away from 
 the shore hj- gales. They pro.-^uce their young at the same 
 time as the eastern seals. 
 
 The Hood seals riding the ice of the Bird Rocks, and St. 
 Paul's, are considered to be a larger seal than (he eastern body 
 and bore the ice, and behave very much like the Harp scalf", 
 only they spread themselves over a much larger surface of 
 ice, and occupy the most southern pos'tion in these waters. 
 The young Hood will weigh 8ibs. to 121bs. when born. It 
 has a grey back, fading into white below, and brown spots. 
 The male develops the hood, which is probably granted as 
 a protection for the eyes, as the}' fight furiously, and use 
 their powerful fore claws and teeth with great elfect. It is 
 a mistake to suppose thr aese large, a od unwieldy animals, 
 cannot move smartly on the ice— they will travel at a 
 considerable speed occasionally. 
 
 Like the eastern seals, the bedlamers of both Hoods and 
 Harps occup}- positions on the ice a considerable distance 
 from the breeding ice. About the first week in Apiil, the 
 young seals will be teVing the water, but many of them do 
 not leave the Gulf of St. Lawrence until May or June; and 
 a number of the old seals appear to linger in this favoured 
 fishing ground, as the ice is about until the end of June, 
 and often July. The Hood seals, of course disappear as 
 soon as the young are a.)le to care for themselves, but a 
 number of the young Hoods ismaii;. It is an ancient report 
 that all the Hoods pass through the Belleisle Strait, o 'heir 
 journey home ; but they keep well in the middle of the 
 strait— they are vei'y wary animals. 
 
 About the first of May, the larp seals and a large number 
 
48 
 
 of bedlamers, ride the heavy floe Eeventj or a hundred miles 
 (o the east"'ard of Cape Bauld, and as far north as Cape 
 Harrison on the Labrador, to change their coat ; but they 
 take great precautions, as tliey evidently feel tl:e impending 
 laziness, or helplessness, incident to the change. They ride 
 in large groups many miles apart, but each company of old 
 seals have a smart bedlam.er sentinel, perched upon a hum- 
 mock, to warn them of approaching danger. The heat on 
 the ice is often considerable in sunny days, and the backs 
 of the seals blister with the sun, for they remain on the ice 
 about f-fteen '^lays, lying about and rubbing the old hair off. 
 "he water evidently scalds them when they attempt to fish 
 or are hurried off the ice by the approach of danger. Like 
 the whale, all these animals are infested with parasites ; and 
 nature has pi-ovided this opportunity of gettii)g rid 7 tlieiu 
 for a short time. Their Ho')d friends ride the Farewell ice 
 a month later, but it is usually wrapped in fog, which must 
 be refreshing, if dangerous, as it permits the sealei's to 
 approach them. Th'-re is very little fog in May ou Cape 
 JJauld, the warm water is a long wav off'. 
 
 About the liUth of .May, the Harps are moving up the 
 Labrador coast, and making the land whenever the ice 
 permits them, to hunt and fish. Occasionally, they venture 
 up the arms under the ice, where they know the brooks will 
 have rotted the ice at the head, stirring the caplin (Sahno 
 iircticiis) out of the mud, where they hybernate during the 
 winter. It is a delicacy they seldom enjoy, but they must 
 often obtain the real salmon in the vicinity of Cape Mercy, 
 or Cumberland Sound. The ice will be open in Haffin's Bay, 
 in the middle of June, when the great body of seals Till 
 
49 
 
 have returned from their nine mouths' excursion to the 
 lianks of Newfoundland. 
 
 The b'idlamer is an important link in this migration, for 
 a largi- proportion of the netted seals, are ^ -log senls from 
 one to tlvc years old, of al! varieties; now the seal net is 
 never far from the shore, con8ei|ucntly if Harps. Hoods, and 
 Jixihata are caught in ' day, in the vicinity of, say 
 Griguet, or Forteau ; the inferenco to be drawn from the 
 fact, is that the bedlamer is not restricted to a particular 
 position in the "stiing,' v.. body of seals passing that point. 
 That the young seals congregate together like the young of 
 other animals, irrespective of size or colour, and, like them, 
 are playful, active, inquisitive, and when they are four 
 years old, fearless. These characteristics were more easily 
 observed fifty vears ago; they used to come in to close 
 harbours, and pla. about the boats anu stages like children. 
 But here is a wild, large, yellow-nailed seal, often noticed 
 and caught in these positions ; joining with the giddy 
 throng passing to the south, or north ; but it is unlike them ; 
 it has no parent, or aunt, to follow and obey. What is it 
 doing here then ? The only answer is, enjoying itself— 
 taking a holiday excursion. Well, but this is not a usual 
 proceeding amongst the pinnioeds — some other seal must 
 liave persuaded it to leave its parents or friends for eight or 
 nine months ?— for in this throng all the various members 
 of the families a^e repiesented. 
 
 Xow compare the position of the elderly seals passing 
 along the coast. The Harp generally keeps as near to the 
 coast as it dare ; perhaps half-a-mile, or a quarter of a mile 
 off shore, sometimes less; they fulfil their title " the inshore 
 
50 
 
 seal of Xuwfoundland,'' whether coastinof or ridins: the ice. 
 But they are caufcious, staid creatures, they stand off, at the 
 slif^htest danger or obstacle. 
 
 The Hood seals may be two or three miles outside, some- 
 times more, all depending upon their position on the coast ; 
 occasionuljy, passing through narrow channels, the two 
 strings may be close together; yet, so far as they have been 
 observed, there is no mingling of the two varieties — strict 
 order is enforced. It is only the giddy bedlamer that 
 breaks the rule of the road. 
 
 But what a road to traverse ! — ihey break up into three 
 distinct streams — perhaps four. What must the executive be 
 that marshals these minions ? 
 
 Where is the Hood seal disciplined like this': There are 
 plenty in the world north and south, the Stemmutojms is 
 the same family. Some of them must have been noticed ? 
 
 The executive are videutly unable to control the bed- 
 I-amcrs, they are into all the stages and nets and craft 
 inshore, and aie netted and shot accordingly. But the 
 bedlamer by his very actions, proclaims a certain bond of 
 anion, however feeble, between the Harp and the Hood. 
 The young seals enjoy life together, however distant their 
 respective parents may be! The writer has never heard of 
 it mingled body of old Hoods and Harps seen in the water 
 together. A skilful and acute observer was beset in his 
 .ship, and crushed into Notre Dame Hay by the convolutions 
 of the body of ice that mutually bore the old seals into close 
 contact one with ihe other. There was no anger exhibited 
 by the old Hoods, which is displayed by the iutlation of the 
 iiood; but there was an evident effort to shrink away from 
 
 . ; 
 
51 
 
 the old Harps, as if their presence vv^as not desirable ; but 
 there was no escape — no reachinof any water, it was a heavy 
 jam. The two distinct bodies of Harps and Hoods, migrating 
 to the south, are constantly seen, and have been noticed for 
 a century; but the etiquette of the varieties precludes any 
 approach of the elder seals — to the wiiter this speaks 
 volumes. 
 
 The distance between the two varieties, is as great to-day, 
 as if Farewell separated them ; the blue nails and the 
 yellow nails have no sympathy with one another; the only 
 feature in the migration that appears to have influenced the 
 ■wild Hood to submi*^ to the rule of the migrating Harp, 
 and accept an outside bat parallel position to the ancient 
 traveller, vpas food. And it was evidently only a section of 
 the Hood seals chat accepted the situation, which in several 
 hundred years has transformed the animal into a very 
 different creatare fiom their scattered brethren on the 
 rough ice of the Labrador. And the modus vivmidi was 
 probably the bedlamer— there appears to be no other avenue 
 of approach between the mild, graceful, and persistent 
 traveller into the southern waters of the Atctic current, 
 and the Hood. As the Phoca Barhata is led to day— so in 
 the past ; the Cystvj'hora Cflditfn was led, by the amenities 
 of the young seals, and obeyed the rule of the Greenhitidica ^ 
 This theory of the wiiter is not all his own, for the position 
 of the Hood is too curious to be unnoticed by a critical 
 observer. Captain A. .Tackman considers the Hood seal 
 to be an imported variety into these v/aters and the writer 
 entirelj agrees with him. 
 
 The writer views with regret the reported expulsion of 
 

 52 
 
 the Cristata from the ice south of Farewell ; if it does pix)ve 
 to be a permanent change the results may be far reaching^, 
 for it is reasonable to infer that they have probably made 
 one change of longitude in the past. When we consider 
 that their riding-ice extends in a very broken and fragmen- 
 tary manner, from Cape Ray to Cape Chidley nearly 
 thirteen degrees of latitude, we may well ask are they 
 increasing ? And it is strange, that none of the eastern 
 (h-eenlandica., which are apjjarently a differently marked and 
 coloured seal from the Baffin's Bay variety, have been 
 noticed to the westward of Farewell. Does not this circum- 
 stance appear to indicate that the Farewell ice has become 
 the particular resting place of the Cristaia of these western 
 waters; in the same way as they ride the St. Paul's ice, 
 ■which the GreenlamUca never approach. Perhaps the 
 (J reodaiidlra of the east are similarly situated and do not 
 frequent the Farewell ice, which may account for their 
 absence from these waters. East Greenland may be termed 
 the home of the Cridata to the same extent as Baffin's Bay 
 is the home of the GreenlamUca ; only, the Green land ica com- 
 plete their toilet south of Cape Mugford ; they do not return 
 to Baffin's Bay for any particular purpose, unless it be n 
 change of air, and water temperature; of course their 
 niigtatory habit impels the young and old seals to return to 
 what was evidently their home in the past, but they do not 
 appear to thrive very well there now; they ui-rive some time 
 in June in excelleut condition particularly the bedlamers, 
 and leave probably early in October in thin hunting condi- 
 tion, which does not speak in flattering terms of Baffin's Bay 
 diet. But it appears as if necessity compelled them to 
 
Mr^^^w^m. 
 
 5:1 
 
 escape from the warmer temperatare of the east coast of 
 Newfoundland. Look at the evident distress of the yon-^^ 
 seals of both varieties lying on the ice in a mild winter, 
 particularly the CrUtatn ; they only exist. Newfoundland in 
 a mild season is not suited now for either variety. Both old 
 and young rush inshore where the cold water travels rapidly, 
 and north as soon as possible after the great event of the 
 migration has been accomplished. Then see the suffering 
 <-f the old seals riding the heavy floe to shed their coats. 
 Ikligrati m was a necessity in the past, us it is to day ; it is 
 sterner to-day, but the seals must live. 
 
 The Cnsfdta of the east roast of Newfoundland leave the 
 ice about the first week in April and do not return to the 
 Jjabrador coasi until probably early in October; but the 
 <;;ulf section will bo later, perhaps the middle or end of 
 April ; there is little to guide us except distance with the.'^e 
 seals ; so that they are absent from these waters about six 
 months. But the Cristatn leave for a definite purpose, they 
 go back to Farewell to siied their coat in June; it is 
 evidently a habit which has not left them ; and further 
 notwithstanding their apparent tractability in keeping their 
 outside position during the migration : and their compara- 
 tively restricted breadth of breeding ice : their occasioniil 
 abnormal ice boring on the east coast : and the occupation 
 of a definite directive position from the Harp seals :— in fact 
 the docile habit that appears to have been imparted to tbete 
 wild animals by the mild sway of the migrating Harp : — 
 yet they cannot forget the heavy east Greenland floe ice ; 
 that predilection still survives in the easter 1 patches : they 
 press out to the rough ice on the eastern edge of the body. 
 
54 
 
 Theso are circumstances, and survived habits which 
 appear to the writer to point to a change of locality in some 
 distant bygone years— the possible introduction of the 
 Crlstatii into a milder form of ice than the rugged stream 
 flowing down the east Greenland coast P The position of 
 the I'ridaia in the Gulf is well worthy of notice ; they ride 
 nearly in the opposite direction to the eastern body— all to 
 the west or 8.W. of the Harps ; and the St. Paul's patch of 
 Hood seals appear to represent the guardians of the strait. 
 It appears idle to speculate on the circumstances that 
 produced such a change in the natural disposition of these 
 seals, noted for being a wild ott-shore seal in these waters. 
 But we are viewing to-day the last remnants of the Arctic 
 animals that frequented these waters in 1.593; the walrus 
 was a constant visitor to the Galf, and no doubt the Barhata 
 and G'/(?ew?fr;;(7/m abounded ; it is only the migratory habit 
 of these last two varieties that have preserved them. 
 
 The whole aspect of this interesting migration and con- 
 comitant circumstances feebly portrayed, appear to the 
 writer to look back to a period in the past, when Cape Fare- 
 well was a barrier between the eastern and western hair 
 seals, possibly about the year 982, but the verdant period 
 faded away about 1408 when " the gradual increase of ice 
 surrounded those coasts, and communication with Europe 
 was completely cut off " (Dr. Foster in loo.) The Cristata 
 appears to have followed the ice down and eventually found 
 its way into these waters. The earliest mention of the 
 Hood seal in Anspach's N.F. Ld. is 1763 but they probably 
 were migrating long before that date. The difficult question 
 to solve, is how was th.d protective, and directive arrange- 
 ment between the two varieties first originated ? 
 
55 
 
 Statistics of the Position of the Seals, and 
 State of the Ice. 
 
 Extracted from the St. John's Papers, and other Records. 
 
 An Extract from a\ old Sealing Diarv, Boxavista. 
 
 1822. May 17th and 18fch : " Plenty of dead cod fish ab' ut 
 
 and old and youn^ Harps, boats could load with 
 
 either of tbem." The seals had just come in from 
 
 tbe heavy ice, where they had been shedding their 
 
 coats. There was ice in to the shore. 
 
 The Harp seals in this case ha-^ 'ved into deep water, 
 
 and driven the cod up to the surface, where the water would 
 
 be at a lower temperature than below. The cod became 
 
 paralysed, and apparently dead, but would have revived if 
 
 placed in salt water at a higher temperature. The Basque 
 
 fishermen called them Morruha, because they saw them 
 
 attempting to reach the Labrador coast, through the ice 
 
 near to the shore — "rushing to death." Cod can only exist 
 
 at a certain temperature, bat it is low. In June and July, 
 
i6 
 
 in the vicinity of Ferrjland, cold sti-eaks of water occasion- 
 ally flow south, when no fish can be caught. 
 ISll. March IGoh : Young seals seen on the ice, three 
 
 hundred miles east of Cape Bonavista. 
 1865. Jan. 3rd : Drove to church with wheels ; no snow ; 
 a mild winter at St. John's. — Jan. 2Gth : Harbour 
 full of slob ice — Feb. 19th : Ice in to the coast. — 
 Feb. 21st: A heavy jam, no water in sight. — 
 March 18th : A male and female Fhoca Ikirhafa 
 killed off Harbour Grace, Conception Bay. — Feb. 
 27th : Seals taken off Cape Frcels, and Notre 
 Dame Bay. — ^lay 20th : A walrus brought in from 
 the Belleisle Strait. 
 186G. A bitter January and February. — Feb. 13th : All ice. 
 Several vcFsels lost in the ice ; crews perished. — 
 April 0th : A number of sealers jammed in Bona- 
 vista and Notre Dame Bays. — April l.jth : Seventy 
 sail jammed in Bonavista Bay. Seals. A good 
 voyage. 
 1SG7. Feb. 11th : N.W. gale, heavy weather. — March 11th : 
 Seals taken off the L'unk Island and in Bonavista 
 Bay. A mild season. 
 
 1868. Very hard winter. — ]\[arch 30th : Seals off" Kirpon. 
 
 — April 3rd : Seventy-fivf vessels jammed in Notre 
 Dame Bay. Seals. 
 
 1869. March 27th: Capt. A. Jackman, S S. "Hawk," 
 
 loaded with Harps. — Api il 12th : Seals all north 
 of Fogo Island, taken off (Jroais Island. 
 
 1870. An open season. East winds in March ; bays full of 
 
 heavy ice. — April 9th : Fifty vessels jammed in 
 
57 
 
 White Bay. Seals.— April lOth : Body of seals in 
 Belleisle Strait; good voyage. The ships remained 
 beset in the bays until May 30th, 
 1871. Jan. 3rd ; Cable ship " Robert Lowe " in the ice 170 
 miles east Trinity Bay. A mild winter. — March 
 10th : Twenty -one sail jammed in Bonavista Bay. 
 Seals. S.S. " Wolf " cut in two by a berg in White 
 Bay. Seals. — May 24th : A body of ice in the bays. 
 
 1572. A cold winter. — March 2.jth : Gales of east wind, all 
 
 ice; bays full. Seals all north of Fogo Island 
 taken ott" Groais Island. May 12th : A number of 
 piles of seals were found on the ice marked with 
 Hags off St. Pierre, on the south coast. 
 
 1573. No remarks. 
 
 ISz-i. "March I8th: Seals all north, taken off Fogo on the 
 19th.— April 3rd: S.S. "Tigress" blew up off 
 Funk Island, in the seals. — May 12th : Old seals in 
 S.S. " Nova Scotia " ; out of 1,800 seals only twenty 
 were female Harps. 
 
 1875. A cold winter.— Jan. IGth : " Caspian " passed 
 through sixty miles of ice. — Feb. 16th : Thermo- 
 meter 21^ below zero. All ice, no water. The 
 seals were all taken between Cape St, John and 
 Funk Island. — April 3rd : A good trip of old seals. 
 
 i87(». Jan. 5th : A heavy body of ice on the coast. — April 
 Sth : Seals in White Bay. A large number of seals 
 taken north of Fogo. Many vessels beset in Notre 
 Dame Bay on May 30th.— A very mild winter in 
 Greenland. 
 
 1877. Feb. 24th : A total absence of ice on the coast — 
 
58 
 
 \ 
 
 March 17: S.S. "Greenland" in seals, 150 miles 
 E.8.K. of Belleisle. All seals rode east, no ice 
 inshoi'c. 
 
 1878. A mild winter. All seals in White or Notre Dame 
 
 Bays. 
 
 1879. Very mild. All seals taken to tho eastward ; no ice 
 
 inshore. 
 
 1880. Moderate winter. — March 2.Srd : Seals off Bonavista 
 
 —April 3rd : Seals off St. John's. The body eouth. 
 Heavy ice on the coast ; bays all full. — April 16th, 
 Lance a Loap, Belleisle Strait : A large number of 
 seals passing up the strait, i.e., going into the Gulf. 
 —May 10th: S.S. "Neptune" forced down to 
 Cape Harrison, Labrador; heavy ice; obtained a 
 thousand old Harps. 
 
 1881. Seals taken in Xot/e D'» le Bay and Funk Island. 
 
 1882. A very heavy year of ice. — Feb. 27th : Dundee fleet 
 
 off St. John's ; 200 miles of ice to the eastward. — 
 March lOth : Dundee fleet hawsed the ice into Sf. 
 John's Harbour. — March 28th : A heavy body of 
 ice extending west of St. Pierre bank.— Xo bankers 
 arrived at St. Pierre until April ]8th. On same 
 date seals taken S.S.E. 220 miles from Cape Race. 
 
 1883. A cold winter. — March 14th : Seals taken 150 miles 
 
 east of Belleisle. — April 2nd : Seals taken 20 miles 
 east of Cape Bluff on Labrador. — April 9th: Seals 
 taken off Groais Island. A bitter winter in the 
 Gulf, the ice rafted 20ft.— April Uth: Seals in 
 Notre Dame Bay. 
 1884 A very cold winter.— April 9th: Seals taken n 
 
59 
 
 White Bay and Xotra Dame. A young Harp ISin. 
 lonp, with two bodies joined at rib8, only four 
 flippers. 
 
 1885. A cold winter. All the seals north ofE xogo Island. 
 
 1886. A mild winter. — March ,30th : Seals taken off Fogo 
 
 and Funk Islands and "*' tre Dame Bay. " Reso- 
 lute " lost on Ireland Ri. .. 
 
 The writer regrets that he has mislaid the statistics of the 
 notice of seals at Cape Race Lighthouse, which are an 
 important link in the chain of evidence; but it is only 
 during excessive ice sheds that the seals are seen after the 
 20th of February near the Avalon coaat. 
 
 In addition to the evidence of Cape Bonavista, where the 
 seals are often noticed journeying south early in January, 
 and sometimes December, they have been observed at f't. 
 John's early in January. Th^y precede the ice always. On 
 January 6th, 1881, seals were seen near the harbour. It 
 can be only an accident that any record is made of these 
 trifles. On February 16th, 1876, old seals were noticed in 
 Trinity Bay, the only record of the journey north. 
 
 On April 7th, 1877, a young riwca Bnrhata was caught 
 near Harbour Breton, Fortune Bay. This is the only notice 
 of this variety so far south. 
 
 With regard to the weight of the " pelt," or fat, and skin 
 of young seals, i.e., all that is brought in of the animal, 
 except a few flippers ; they appear to range between 4S lbs. 
 and 52 lbs. ; occasionally they have averaged 57 lbs. 
 
 When the subject of the cost of production is considered 
 in connection with the sailing sealer, and the steam sealer. 
 
60 
 
 the result of the bare figures — without taking into con- 
 sideration the wide distiibution of benefit, the constant 
 winter employment, and the introduction of good food at 
 the very period it was most wanted — is surprising: — 
 The voyage in 1883, steam, 553,41>5 seals. 
 „ „ 1832, sail, 508,000 „ 
 
 They are both very good seasons. To expand upon this 
 monetary view of , e seals, at the end of the 19th century 
 might be considered as a retrocession into obsolete methods 
 of capture — nevertheless, there was a widely-extended 
 comfort obtained by the old method. 
 
Sold by 55 F GarM 
 
 *t.J"^ IC. 
 
 For Reference 
 
 
 Not to be taken from this room