Seal hunting

“ They are very tenacious of life and when shot must be killed instantly or they will slide into the water and disappear. My Indian guide shot a large bull around the region of the heart, and it would have reached the water although mortally wounded if the Indian had not caught hold of its flippers and pulled back with all his strength. All the time the bull was snapping [Pg 221] viciously at him just like a dog. The northern seal is much prized by the natives for its economic value, its flesh, fat, and skin being in great demand. Seal hunting in these waters has been a great industry for years. ”

“ Several things in this interesting and spirited account are, so far as I am aware, unprecedented in the annals of seal-hunting in this country. I have never known or heard of any one in so short a time and out of a single herd getting so many fair shots. When one gets amongst a lot of seals, swimming and diving around the boat, one shot is commonly all that you can hope for, and whether you kill or not, it is almost invariably sufficient to send the rest at once far beyond range. ”

“ The hunting season lasts about six weeks, and begins early in June, soon after the arrival of the seals. The men arm themselves with clubs, and then drive the seals up into a cleared space away from the shore, where the animals are helpless, because they are clumsy and move slowly when out of the water. 74 A single blow on the seal’s head is enough to end his life, and to give the hunter the beautiful soft skin he wishes. ”

“ In hunting the seal, they take a different plan. The seal is very fond of its young. The hunters will take advantage of this by lying flat on the ice and making a sound like the cry of a young seal. In this way they manage to call the old seal out on the ice. But even then it is not always easy to catch the seal, for it has a strong, flexible tail, by means of which it is able to throw itself a good many feet at a time, so that even when on the ice it sometimes gets away with its awkward rolls and flops and jumps. A seal is very active and almost always in motion. ”

“ Not one in five of the pack-ice seals is free from the marks of the Killer’s teeth, and even the Sea Leopard, which is the most powerful seal of the Antarctic, has been found with fearful lacerations.
Only the Weddell Seal is more or less secure, because it avoids the open sea. Living, as it does, quite close inshore, breeding in bights and bays on fast ice some ten or twenty miles from the open water, it thus avoids the attacks of the Killer to a large extent. ”

“ How the cormorants dive and fish in it, how the gull tears at the drifted carcase of its kind, how the puffins, in ceaseless flight between ocean and their myriad burrows, arch and dome it in! Oh, it is a fine apartment! Its portals on either side are columns of spouting foam, and beyond lies the wild, houseless sea. A seal's dormitory!—how well do the wild things choose! So here, at once, one learns something different to what one is told. Seals care nothing about tides when they can get great slanting slabs that lie high and dry above them. ”

“ The proper rules are that no mother seals, baby seals, or father seals shall be killed, but that the hunters shall watch until the badly behaved bachelor seals have got tired with fighting, and gone up above the rookeries to rest. The hunters ought then to creep in between the seals and the water, and making a noise to frighten them drive them inland.
Every hunter should be armed with a wooden club, and when he has chosen a seal that seems to be about two or three years old, he should strike it with this club and kill it. ”

“ When the herds enter Bering Sea, about the end of June, nearly every female seal is with young. After the long voyage of two or three thousand miles through the heavy, boisterous waters of the North Pacific, they are naturally tired when they reach these breeding-grounds, and iii a condition in which they are an easy prey to the unscrupulous hunter. Even if every such female seal which is killed were secured, it is clear that two seal lives would be destroyed for the sake of a single sealskin. ”

“ Great battles are waged between 310the heads of seal families from June to August, and the harsh chorus of their voices is heard at sea above the roar of the breakers, and is the sailors’ guide in making the islands during the heavy summer fogs. Only the male seals from two to four years of age are killed, and the skins of the three-year-olds have the finest and closest fur. The method of killing them has nothing heroic or huntsmanlike about it. ”

“ But it is estimated that the hunter secures only one out of three or four such seals killed in the open sea, and on this basis the enormous destruction of seal life by the poachers, in proportion to the sealskins which are furnished for the purposes of commerce through their operations, may be easily estimated. Every seal-skin placed upon the market by them represents the destruction of six or eight seals—an utterly unjustifiable inroad into the vitality of the herds, already small enough as a source of supply for the world. ”

“ If the seal is a large one and struggles much, a turn of the line is taken around the waist, and the hunter braces himself for an encounter, in which the seal is sometimes the victor. Great care is necessary in paying out the line, for many a finger has been lost by becoming entangled in a loop. The violently struggling seal must soon breathe, and to do so is compelled to rise in the hole; then the hunter endeavours to drive the pointed rod into its brain, and usually does so very quickly. The hole is then enlarged with the ice-chisel on the end of the spear handle. ”

“ When they hear this sound they come to the surface, elongate their necks to the utmost extent, and expose them fully to the aim of the hunter. They are most [72] effectually secured however by firing duck or other shot, which blinds them, so that they may be approached and despatched; when killed at once by a single bullet they most commonly sink. Another mode of killing the seal is to go to the caves on shore, into which herds of seals occasionally enter. ”

“ The skin protects him from the melting snow, facilitates speed, and diminishes the noise as he creeps. He moves on toward the seal, resting on his left arm and side and pushing himself forward with his right foot and left arm (Fig. 412) . The seal frequently raises his head and gazes around to make sure that no danger threatens. As long as the seal is looking around the hunter lies flat and keeps perfectly still, or, if he is somewhat close to the animal, imitates its movements by raising his head and rolling and playing with his hands and feet as a seal does with its flippers. ”

“ When a seal is thus engaged the hunter, clad in seal-skin garments, endeavors to make his way between the seal and the air-hole, a process demanding endless patience and involving much fatigue. The hunter lies either on his face or side, and makes his advances while the animal dozes or is looking elsewhere. If obliged to move while the seal is awake, the native makes his advances by a series of awkward motions like those of a seal making its way over the ice. ”

“ It is generally pretty hard work to kill a seal.
During the winter months the seals do not come out upon the ice, and are then hunted usually with dogs that are trained for the purpose. The hunter, equipped with his spear-shaft in his hand, and his line, with the barbed spear-head attached, thrown over his shoulder, starts out, leading his dog, whose harness is on and the trace wound several times around his neck, so that but a yard or two is left to trail along the snow. ”

“ From November till spring they kill Seals in great numbers. Two thousand five hundred were killed by seventeen men in three days; this great feat was done with short sticks, each Seal being killed with a single blow on the snout, while resting on the edges of the field ice. The Seals are carried to the camp on sledges drawn by Esquimaux dogs, that are so well trained that on reaching home they push the Seals off the sledge with their noses, and return to the hunters with despatch. (Remember, my Lucy, this is hearsay.) ”

“ When one is seen lying near its hole, the native approaches as near as possible, say within 500 yards, when he lies down and crawls and wriggles the remainder of the distance. During this operation great care is taken not to excite the animal’s suspicion, and an advance is only made when the seal’s head is down. A seal appears to sleep in short naps, and raises his head every few minutes ”

“ I well remember the first seal I shot. I had landed on the weather-side of a small island. A cautious reconnoitring discovered a good-sized seal ‘lying up’ on a detached rock. Then I commenced the stalking, closely followed by my dog. But ere I could approach within range, one of those seal-sentinels and provoking tormentors of the seal-hunter, a herring gull, set up his wild warning scream. The seal perfectly understood what it meant, at once took the alarm, plunged into the water, and disappeared. ”

“ The Innuits are, as I have frequently said, most persevering sealers, and will go, with their dogs, even in the very coldest of weather, and under most dangerous circumstances, to hunt for seal-holes. The sagacious dog, on snuffing the air and finding it charged with seal odour, follows it to the windward till he leads his master to the very spot where a seal has its hole. The man then proceeds prospecting with his spear through one to three feet depth of snow, until he finds the small opening in the ice leading to the main seal-hole. ”

“ Then the hunter can go up to them without any precaution and kill them immediately, and even a dog team running at full speed can take them by surprise. In winter a similar method of hunting is followed whenever the edge of the floe is close to the land. In such places all kinds of seals lie on the ice, even in the midst of winter, and are pursued in the way which has been already described. ”

“ You can now readily understand how easy it is for two or three men, early in the morning, to come where we are, turn aside from this vast herd in front of and around us two or three thousand of the best examples, and drive them back, up, and over to the village. That is the way they get the seals. There is no “hunting,” no “chasing,” no “capturing” of fur-seals on these islands.
While the young male seals undoubtedly have the power of going for lengthy intervals without food, they, like the female seals on the breeding grounds, certainly do not maintain any long fasting periods on land. ”

“ If it is hit anywhere else it almost invariably escapes the hunter, though it may not escape death. Often the hunter reaches the hole in time to seize his prey by the hind flipper just as it is passing down into the water. I remember standing and gazing mournfully down into a hole one day through which a seal that I had shot had just escaped, though his blood tinged the water and edges of the ice, and while I was lamenting my ill-luck I heard a splash behind me and turned in time to see the seal come up through another hole. ”

“ In this way they can move so fast that a man has to step out beyond a walk to keep up with them; but such rapid action costs considerable effort, and they soon become exhausted. These various modes of progression appear to be common to all species so far as has been observed.
Most kinds of seals are gregarious and congregate, especially at the breeding season, in immense herds. Such is the habit of the Greenland seal, which resorts in the spring to the ice-floes of the North Sea, around Jan Mayen Island. ”

“ There is the best evidence that the poachers confine themselves almost entirely to this commercially-precious female portion of the herds. It is reported that, out of twenty-five thousand sealskins which resulted from the work of those engaged in this disgraceful traffic, not one male skin could be found. This may be easily understood, for the male seal is strong and alert, and no hunter can get within shooting distance of him, as he can generally escape from the fastest boat pursuing him. ”

“ The seals lie all around on the edges of the ice floes, and at first pay no attention to the boats. They lift their heads and see the boats coming from a long distance away; then, ignorant [109] of their danger, they lower their heads again and lie quiet.
As the boats draw nearer, the seals sometimes slide off into the water. The hunters are quick to see any movement on the part of the seals. As soon as one moves toward the water, the men in the boat begin to shout as loudly as they can. The seal is so astonished by the unusual noise that he lies still awhile to think it over. ”

“ A skilful hunter sometimes gets within a few feet of the animal without arousing its fears, and an on-looker would at a distance be unable to say which figure was the seal and which the man. Seals are unusually curious, and at times one comes forward with friendly air to meet its supposed fellow. When in the desired position the hunter springs up and, running to the air-hole, attacks the animal as he tries to escape. ”

“ The seals and sea-lions, which were so abundant formerly, are now reduced to such a small number, as to make the seal-fishery scarcely worth notice. They have been destroyed by taking them indiscriminately, without regard to age or sex, leaving none to propagate the race but those who by chance escaped. ”

“ Often a few hours of calm weather was the signal for half a dozen animals to land. The wind sooner or later sprang up and drove them back to their warmer element.
Under the generic name, seal, are included the true or hair seals and the sea-bears or fur seals. Of these the fur seals are sub-polar in distribution, inhabiting the cold temperate waters of both hemispheres, but never living amongst the polar ice. The southern coast of Australia and the sub-antarctic islands were their favourite haunts, but the ruthless slaughter of the early days practically exterminated them. ”