The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-07-19
HUNTING SEALS.
MAINE INDIANS, WITH CANOE
 AND GUN,
ng Rig Rnsiness in Boaton Hnrhor--.

i Live Now in WigWam on PeddOclSs
 Island.
 On the beach on the northweserly side of Peddocls islands can be seen a small Indian wigwam, in which live the Indian seal hunters of Boston har- bor, who are capturing seals every day and who are making money at the business There are six of them, all members of the Passamaquoddy Bay tribe from near Passport, Me, and they are full~blooded red men, with the skill of their ancestors and the commercial spirit of their Yankee conquerors. They have been camping on the beach at Peddocks island for the last two weeks; 1 they have their canoes which they brought with them from Maine and
 they go hunting the harbor seals in them like Eskimos in kyaks, There is a bounty of 8 on each tail of seal; in
 this state their skins are worth sonae- thing and their flesh makes good food.
 Yesterday Boston Herald repre-
 sentative descended on their camp, and 1 found it to be like picture from the
 books of the Arctic explorers, with the
 canoes turned bottom up on the sand,
 the wigwam looking like a big mush- room and the kettles, pote guns knives gaffs and paddles placed all about in delightful confusion. But there were no blocks Of ice to interfere with the movements of the canoes, there was no Wolf Larsen to drive the men to their work and perhaps to their deaths and
 bits of evidence showed that the Pas samaquoddy Indians are seal fisherman de luxe
 MAKE BIC MONEY AT WORK.
 They are able to make all the way from $2O to $30 per week, and they have to endure none of the hardships which are the common lot of the sealers of Hudson's bay of Behring sea. Last year these adventurous Indians came to Boston to go seal hunting, and their bold couorage In braving the elements is shown by the methods they used to reach the seeding grounds.
 They had four canoes of the down Maine type, deep and broad and weigh ing about 75 pounds apiece. There is a socket for mast in the bow of each They packed all of their camp cuffe in one of the canoes and started out from Passport for Portland They sailed these cranky crafts over the rough wa ters of the lAtlantic-and the Maine coast is never a mill pond or a land- locked lake. They arrived at Portland without any trouble. placed their canoes on a steamer and came to Bos- ton.
 They startled from the wharf on At lantic avenue and padded down among the deop-sea craft whose sailors looked down on the small fotlla from their floating fortresses of iron and wood in astonisment. They selected Peddocks island as the base of their operations and commenced remarkable campaign against the seal.
 In the summer time the harbor seal, which devours fish in a wasteful man. ner, comes in on the rocks of the va- rious islands to feed He sometimes crawls out on the rocks to rest, and then the Indian seal hunter comes down on him with his silent canoe and rusty gun and puts an end to his life.
 There are always two Indians in each canoe, one in the bow with e shotgun and the other in the stern with the paddle. If they see a seal swimming the canoe Is sent along silently in his direction, and when the first oppor- tUnity offers the bow man fires. There is a spot of dark blood on the blue wa ter, the white underoody of the seal shows as he rolls over dead in the wa- ter, and the canoe forward with a rush, while the bow man drops his gun and grabs the gaff. If the man with the paddle is not quick the body sinks be- fore the man with the gaff can reach it, and then the prize is lost,
 HOW ANIMAL IS CAUGHT,
 Usually the seal Is lifted into the ca noe, uless he is too large, for some of 1 them are six feet in length, when he is l lowed ashore. The tail is cut off, for that is worth $3 as evidence of a dead | seal. and if the seal is young the skin | is carefully preserved and tanned after l the season is over and the red man is back on his hunting grounds near Pas samaquoddy bay The flesh of the young and small seals is used for food, i thus saving expense.
 The amount of money that they have already made may be estimated by the fact that a man in Pemberton has cashed two checks for them, one for $36 and the other for $6o, and sometimes tho bounties are paid in cash. That | sum is a mint of money for an Indian, and they will go back to Maine as plutocrats
 The methods of catching the seal in the evening is to steal slowly along the rocks and call to them with cries which | initiate their barking. The animals | will crawl along toward the call, and | when they are near enough are shot. l If the hunter should miss he would sim ply have to commerce his call agin and the seal would continue to climb toward him. even though the noise of the gun was something that he had never heard before
 The life of a seal bunter on the beach is not what all men would like to lead, not even the followers of outdoor living. Their wigwam is not impervious to rain and last SatnrdaY night. when torrents