OCR Text |
Show 1881.] MR. R. COLLETT ON THE GREY SEAL. 385 the lacerated skins of the animals give ample evidence. Sometimes great pieces of skin are torn off, especially on the neck and throat. These conflicts are so frequent that nearly all the older males bear scars from them, and it becomes difficult, when a specimen is required for museums &c, to find one perfectly uninjured. The female on her part appears to be just as eager to accomplish copulation as the male; and it has often been observed that a male is sometimes so hard pressed by several females desirous of copulation, that he is compelled to seek refuge on the rocks and take to the water on the other side in order to get away; this has been certified by many eye-witnesses. However, there is seldom any want of males, although it is nearly without exception from among these that the few full-grown Seals (killed together with the young ones) are shot. If a family in this manner happens to lose its chief, a new one soon makes its appearance. D. Mode of Capture. From the earliest times the pursuit of the young Seals on the Fro Islands has commenced on a certain day, namely the 17th or 18th of October. The young, which are at this date three weeks old and about to leave the islands, are then in their best condition. If stormy weather or other reasons shall have delayed the pursuit until over this period, many young ones are found to have already taken to the sea, and are then difficult to catch, as they have become quite as shy and wary as the old ones. Such young ones as are found to be too small at the catching-time, and are consequently of less value, are left undisturbed; and they are often to be found at a later period on the same spot. The young ones are killed by a blow on the snout with a wooden club about two feet in length; the full-grown ones are shot: but these, as a rule, are spared; and such is always the case with the females; the young ones which are estimated to have less than 12 kilogrammes of blubber on them also escape. The flesh and blubber of the young ones is eaten salted by the fishermen, and is said to taste tolerably well, as the young ones only subsist on the milk of the mother. Although the capture is dependent on the state of the weather, the annual take always amounts to between 50 and 70 young ones. Some years {e.g. 1880) only half the usual produce is realized, stormy weather preventing approach to the most frequented places of resort. At the utmost there are not born more than 100 Seals annually at the breeding-places on the Fro Islands. It is useless to shoot the larger Seals in the water, as they generally sink instantaneously; they must either be shot on the rocks, or, as is generally the case, in shallow water, whence they can afterwards be taken up. The young ones always float when killed, except when they are very lean1. 1 At Melo and Trcenen, in Nordland, where the capture of Seals is also carried on during the breeding-time in the autumn, the sealers are accustomed to steal on the animals whilst asleep and deal them a stunning blow with a |