SEALS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1496, 2 March 1887, Page 3

SEALS.

A Newfoundland law forbids sailing vessels to depart for the seal hunt before the first of March, and the Bteamera are nob allowed to leave until the tenth of tbe month. This handicap cc 4 s as a protection to tbe vessals which are dependent on the wind alone. The vessels arrive wLen tie baby seals or "vihi'e coats," are three or four weeks old, still dependent upon the mother for subsistence, and unable to escape from the hunters. Their bodies are covered with a very thick layer of fat, and they are far preferable for th's reason to the older seals. When tbe baby fa six weeks old it drops its yellowish white coat, and becomes a " ragged cpa l ," and at this stage they begin to dip, or lake to the water. It is very amusing to watch a mother seal trying to teach a young one to swim. Just ad the eagle stirs up her young and encourages them to use their wings, co the mother seal tumbles the babiea into the wa'er and gives them swimming l(B3one. The old seal pushes tho little one along towards the edge of the ice, the taby all the time whimpering and sobbing and vainly trying to resist the steady pressure from behind. When at laßt it falls into the water It soba so piteouely that even the mother is ashamed of herself, and helps her child back to the ice. Eveiy few hours this (s repeated, and toon the young one oan swim ana dive, and then th« vast nursery dieappears. When thay are m danger from ratting ice or fragments of floes dashed about by the w'nd and likely to crush them, the self-sacrificing affection of the mothers leads them to brave all dangers, and they are Been helping their young to places of safety on the unbrokrn ice, sometimes clasping them m their fore flippers and swimming witli them or pushing them onward with the'r ncses The maternal instinct appears to be very I strong m the seal, and the tenderness with which tbe mother watches the young U most touching. When the little seals are cradled on the ice the mothers remain m the neighborhood, going off each morning to fish, and returning at short inttrvals to Buckle them. It is an extraordinary fact that the old seals manage to keep holes m the ice open and prevent them from freezing. On returning from a fishing excursion extending over fifty er a hundred miles, each mother seal manages to find the hole by which she took her departure, and to discover her own snowy cub, which she proceeds to fondle and feed. This is certainly one of the most remarkable achievements of animnl instinct. Tbe young whito coats aro scattered m myriads over the ice field. Dvi ing tho absence of the mother the ice field has shifted m position, perhaps many miles, being borne on the current, yet each mother seal is able to pick out her own cub from the great herd with unerring accuracy. It is quite touching to witness their sij;ns of distress and grief when they return to find only a pool of blood and a skinless carcass instead of their whimpering young.