TIO MAMMALS

left, throws the harpoon with his right, and trusts to
the bladder tied to the line automatically playing the
seal to his doom ; or when, creeping seal-fashion over
the ice, he gets between the phoca and his ice-hole ;
or when, hiding behind his snow barricade, he watches
his opportunity, should the interfering gull not give
tongue and baulk him of his prey. |

Besides the harp seal, there are the crested seal,
the bearded seal, and the common seal, or sea-dog,
which yields the skins so useful to the currier. A
clever fisher is the common seal. He will hang about
the fishing-grounds and take the fish out of the nets,
and will even swim in and out the passages between
the salmon seines in search of the food he likes best.
On the seal meadows of Newfoundland, the fields of
floating ice round which he lives, he is often met
with in thousands, and all up the Labrador coast and
off the Magdalen Islands the herds are immense.
Fifty years ago, when once the ice was met, a man
from the masthead, even with a telescope, could see
nothing but seals, so thick was the pack, and the
ships were always sure of a load. Now, through the
reckless manner in which the fishing for some years
was conducted, the catches are frequently very poor.

But enough. A book might be written about the
seals, and we have only a page or two to devote to
them. They are as affectionate “as cats, and almost
as intelligent as dogs; but we have no space in which
to do them justice.

The third sub-order of the carnivora need not
detain us long. They are all fossil and of Eocene
and Miocene age, and of such a generalised type