The Republican journal., 1881-09-01
Seal Shooting on the Coast of Maine.

DEER ISLAND IHOROUGHFARE, Aug.
Is, 1881. We left Portland four DAYS
ago, bound east. This stage of the cruise
is one which all hands had looked forward
to with the greatest eagerness, as the
stretch from Portland to Mount Desert
enjoys the we'll deserved reputation of
beng the most attractive on our coast
| DO not mean to say that there are not
individual bits of scenery far more beau
tltul in themselves, as. for instance, the
magnificent precipces of the Grand Ma
nan smooth, towering walls Of rock.
whose trowning heads are several hun
dred feet sheer from the waters edge but,
taken as whole, there is, venture to say.
no such stretch on our coast where there
IS such continued wealth of lovely scenery
as the one i'll question. Names coast
formation from Portland on is very re-
markable. For a distance of fourteen
miles from this point it consists Of guam
titles OF small islands. Then comes a
series OF long, rocky promontories, vary
ing IN length from ten to twenty miles,
formed by the AndrOScOggin, kennebec,
Sheepscut, Damar;scotta, Muscongus and
st. George rivers, and in among these at
haphazard are scattered more islands of
all sizes. At Pen0bsC0t Bay the island
formation recommences and continues to
Mount Desert, through Fox Island Thor
oughtare, Deer Island Thoroughfare and
York Narrows. Portland harbor, the
finest on our coast north Of New York, is
formed entirely by these islands, and was
so unprotected from the east that break
water, which now forms one side Of the
main harbOr, was constructed. In and
| tbrpnrh ba ,loo,, al, a
between these myriad inletS we glide with
a pleasantly westerly breeze The pas
sage in places is very narrow, 50 that 0c-
casionally we run almost close enough to
the rock shore to touch it with an oar.
The effect is very puzzling, and when YOU
have made up your mind that you have
run miles inland you suddenly emerge in
to the open sea. Only for moment how
ever. You get glimpse of the ocean,
feel its heavy swell and almost mmedi-
ately glide in behind another islet. The
scenery is rich and varied. Some OF the
islands are mere rocky lodges, with few
pines and other trees of hardy nature
growing on them, while others are Gov
cred with heavy forest growth which
comes almost to the waters edge and
ceases abruptly, to make place for little
reaches of cleaning white sand. At
Monument Island, 50 called, from the
monument there built to mark the end of
the island passage, we run into the open
sea, and do not reach sheltered waters
again till we pass into Penobscot Bay
through Musselridge Channel We run
across the bay with the wind astern, and
| Just as 1t threatens to leave us and the
sun is sinking we anchor in the quiet wa
ters of Fox Island ThOroughfarc. off the
quiet little fishing hamlet Of North HaV-
en-. Early next morning WE get under
way and run on for a couple Of hours, and
anChOrlng Off another small fishing cen
tire, make our preparations for the days
sport. | do not, it will be seen. give the
name @r exact locality of the village, as
am under an oath to our party not to
make it public. "There are plenty of
seal between Portland and Mount Des-
ert," they say. ''We have discovered this
place let us keep it sacred to the Petrol"
| yield to their reasoning, give the re-
quired promise, and must be pardoned if
| suppress the name Of the place where.
after much toll, we discovered such avery
''soft thing in seals We had the good
wishes Of the natives III our undertaking.
as the seal hereabout is dreadful nuis-
ance AS soon as a school of mackerel or
herring gets into the Thoroughfare the
seal collect in bands, and in couple Of
hours the fish have been chased to sea
again. Having foolishly come unproyid-
ed with a rifle, | am forced to be a spec
tator for the first day. The party start
ed out in three boats The one | was in
contained the Happy Jack and two sea
men besides myself. When about half Il
mile from the yacht we pulled into a cove
that looked promising for seal. Here the
fun began. 1t was not long before, I'M
mediately in front of US, within easy range,
there rose quietly from the water a large,
round, shining black head, looking for all
the world like that Of shaved darky.
'..\vast, there. Steady, now" came in
an excited whisper from Jack in the bow.
| Trembling with excitement he aimed and
fired. The bullet struck Just ahead of
the mark, and the head sank quietly out
Of sight. Jack for a time was incOnsola-
ble for none of us knew how very plenty
| the seal We're about here. Pulling down
toward the end Of the cove we found Il
strong tide running with us. Puzzled to
know where it ran to, for there was no
sign OF an outlet to the cove. we hunted
about till the sound of falling water reach
ed our ears Rounding a rock sharply we
saw a lonely narrow passage between high
rocks ahead, down which the water was
boiling turiousy. Down it went at racing
speed. No need to use the oars touch
Of the rudder now and then to keep her
out Of the eddes and in the true current,
is all we need. The walls of the rocky
| no 700 WI 1sI Inf nv lt ~ 70 .1S
to make us dizzy to lock at them, ana at
the end of a few moments we shot into q
second large cove. out of this ran an
other passage, more marrow and with
switter current even than the first We
rushed through it and came into a SMALL
deep lake surrounded by high hills. To
this there seemed at first no thorough
| fare but search rewarded Us and again
we shot the rapids into another large cove.
Thus for nearly an hour we continued to
pass through the widest and most beau
ttul scenery imaginable, until finally we
emerged into long, narrow cove, at the
end Of which we could see the broad wa
tcrs of the main thoroughtare. Here the
seal seemed to be plenty, and Jack had
another chance, He fired from the bows
of the boat and again missed. We then
saw that firing from the boat was waste of
powder. The object was SO small, the
distance so great, and the bobbing up and
down SO incessant, that we determined
that Jack should land and fire from shore
while we picked up his game for him, He
accordingly landed. He had been ashore
but a few moments when fine large seal
came up about a hundred yards off and
stared him in the face. Poor animal, he
didn't know that he was looking at one
who was never stared out Of countenance.
Jack shot him, for he is Il capital shot
when cool, and by this time he had cool
ed down. In an instant almost, it seemed
to us, simultaneously with the crack Of
the rifle, the water for yards about the
seal was dyed with his blood. He was
/ badly wounded. however. thrashcd about