The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-08-14
FROM THE FROZEN NORTH.
MORE OF LABRADOR AND ITS PEOPLE.
Every Man, Woman and Child Killing
seaIs-A Great Industry Esquimaux
Bay Population of the Extreme
North-Talk With a Missionary.

On BOARD THE SCHOONER "SoPHIE," July
20. Copyrighted, 1881 At Mingan
islands we had the good fortune to find
a man and brother in distress. This
was a wild and hairy missionary OF
the Wesleyan methodist persuasion who
had been expatriated from his sunny
home in some pleasant English village, to
pass four years in tireless, and he con-
fessed almost useless, mission work along
these wretched shores. "Discarded by the
cannibalsi'' seemed to be written in every
line of the poor mans face. He had been
whiting at Mingan harbor more than
month for opportunity for reaching
Chateau bay, at the shoulder OF the
bowling Atlantic coast, and We gave him
free passage, nStoI1y on general grounds
of liberality to TIE cloth, but in considera-
ton of the added dignity chaplain would
give the schooner Sophie, as well as be-
cause he knew much of the Labrador folk
and their customs, and was not averse to
telling what he knew. Altogether he was
excellent company; and what he told US
of the sailing industry alone proved valua-
bic and entertaining.
He related to begin with, that chill
dren's game called copy" similar to that
of your own children who follow the
leader" wild and dangerous pastime
but heartily encouraged by parents, IS at
the basis of all succt 50 in seal hunting.
When the ice begins breaking up IN
March. all Labrador and Newfoundland
children hail the arrival of their annual
play-spell with joyous delight. Copying"
consists of leaping from one floating slab,
or nan of ice, to another. The most dar-
ing of leaders are selected and the sport is
followed with tremendous vigor so long as
the floating ice remains. Its utility lies IN
its educative power. The very EXPERIENCES
and bravery thus engendered are the SUI
preme requisites in youths and men sa
seal hunters. Only a few years ago seal
hunting was carried on in these waters
exclusively from schooners, built OF enor-
nous strength, whose home ports were
the little villages of the Labrador and
the northern Newfoundland coasts and
st. Johns. Newfoundland. But immense
sealing steamers finally supplanted these,
causing a desperate state OF want among
the native fishermen. Latterly the
steamers have been given up to some
extent, those worn out or lost being
abandoned, owing to the lessening
number of seals; but the success of
last years work, has given a new actlv.
ity to the industry. The total take
was nearly a half million seals, worth
$4,000. The take" of the sailing steam
er Neptune of st. Johns was, alone, AZ, 1000
seals. She was loaded to the gunwales,
their alQpr1inO hpTfha
so that the fat could be slowed away. The
poor sealers alongshore, who are called
''seal-shovers,r TO distinguish them from
the steamer sealers, took fully 100000
seals. Every man, woman and child who
could WELD a club, gun, knife or any
other possible weapon, was at work from
Minean islands, in the st. Lawrence,
around TO the White and Notre Dame
bays, on the east Newfoundland coast,
killing, skinning and dragging the seals
ashore Our detected missionary friend,
himself, captured forty-five in one day;
parish priest killed and skinned seventy
in one day, and an indomitable widow of
the north shore, born IN old Galway, who
not only fights the wild elements of Lab
rador but everybody else successfully, IN
aided, captured, skinned and dragged
ashore It's seals in three days-a little for
tune in itself in this region, as her take"
Melted her about $500.
The seals are taken in three ways. They
are followed ont to sea in vessels and
killed from small boats on the lce-hoes;
they are hunted by showers" along the
coves and bays in boats, or upon the still
solid ice; or they are netted in coarse nets,
with an S-inch mesh, almost precisely III
The manner that herring are taken at East
port and around Grand Manan. These
nets are moored off favorable cove, with
one end fastened to a huge windlass on
shore. Then a careful lookout is kept,
and when herd of seals has entered the
Enclosure, the net is hauled in behind
the seals, and boats follow, with men
shouting and driving the impounded
creatures to the beaches and rocks, or
back into the strangling net, when the
scene of clubbing and butchery begins.
Cape Mectina, to the west of Ha-Ha bay
on the Labrador coast, is a famous resort
for seals. At La Tabatiere, the fishing
village near, the showers" own a stand of
nets whose total length is 1920 feet At
Natashquan and Esquimaux Point the
sailing-heet numbers only about sixty
schooners; and it is evident that unless
the huge sailing steamers are soon wholly
abandoned, at no late date half the now
trihing population of the st. Lawrence
Labrador coast must be driven from these
shores.
Some other interesting facts regarding
the seals themselves came to light through
our hairy missionary friend. The young
are brought forth on vast floating fields of
ice Ia March. The baby seals are born
with white hair which soon changes to a
soft. silky brown fur and they nestle upon
their frozen beds of ice as long as they are
sucked by their mothers. When from
five 10 six weeks old thew can exist in
vaser. Then they begin following their
mothers about, mdz< &tter the fashion of
human babies, for theiTS attention and the
food OF fish which tley most duti-
fully provide. During this period the
mother seal is az alert and hardy fisher
She will attack the most active and pow
erful fish OF these waters, save the shark !;
and we had the testimony of Capt. Des-
champs that instances have been known
where battles between the food hunting
mother seals and these rapacious ruffians
of the deep resulted in the defeat and
death of the latter. They are powerful
swimmers and will force themselves up
the most rugged acknowledge to attack
the largest salmon. When the Young
seals are from five to six months old they
are left TO shift for themselves. Nor are
they given up gradually. OF sudden the
mother seems To determine that sufficient
time and energy have been expended
upon them, and instantly she
is a stranger to the cub, and any
further attempts at intimacy are resented