SEAL POACHERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2295, 24 February 1898, Page 49

SEAL POACHERS.

Loosening the long kn>as in their belts and gripping handspike aad rifle, they crept quietly, up a slope of rook, smooth-scraped and poiished by the passage of countless j seals. The mate weil knew the risk he ran, and was by no means easy in his mind. Id a party of Russian hunters, the rightful owners of the ground, bad already landed they might be shot down every roan of them, for there is little doubt that the seal poacher meets with rough-aud-ready justice at times. Occasionally these free-lances of the ccean, who may only kiiJ seals in open water, carry a w til-stocked armoury oa board, and weather-beaten skippers have been heard to boast of beatiog oft cruisers,' boats in open fight. It is rumoured that in 1892 some of the schooners vigorously resisted attempts at seizure, and then, as now, the independent sealer was a rankling thorn in the side of British, Rusbian, and American diplomatists, The Oaribon'a crew, however, did not approach the resounding rookery. In the first place, the seven-foot sae-catcb, or bull seal, is a dangerous beast to meddle with on the ground he has fought so hard for ; in the second, his fur has generally been hopelessly torn and rent in the fray, and a sealer seldom molests the breeding amphibians if he can obtain any others. They followed the broad seal road instead, which led away inland, until the watery moonlight fell on a legion, perhaps a thousand strong, of curious, j flopping objects dragging themselves over ! theground. Thesewere.fche"holiuschakie, !> or bachelor seals, too young as yet to enter the lists and fight with the older bulls for a plase in the rookery. For three months they^ would flounder about the ledges and dive in ' the spouting surf, and then depart to scour the wide Pacific from Kamchatka to Cape Horn, never touching dry land again until such as escaped thresher whale aud basking j shark should return nex 1 ) year, full-grown, breeding seals. Meanwhile they must herd apart, and avoid the rookeries on peril of their lives. At a signal from the mate the men spread out, and a few moments later with a muffled roar the legion turned round and headed • back towards the sea, dragging themselves along with head three feet in the air at a curioup, lumbering lope, until at the end of a hundred yards or so many fell panting to tha earth. With practised eyes the Siwaah picked out the most promising victims and hemmed them iD, lettirg the reafc wobble painfully away ; and it is curious that while the fur seal will tear an unarmed man to pieces in a rockery, anywhere else it may bo driven like a sheep. T'jpn the butchery brgan. Hindepike and rifle butt fell like ■ flails ou the rounded heads, crushing iv the '

thin skulls as though they were card- ] board, and soon the hollow beneath tbe rocks echoed with the sound of thudding blows, tbe piping of half-killed seals, and the hoarse shouts of the Siwash as they drove the stragglers in. The men's breath hung like steam about them in the nipping air, and thß rank odour of the jelly blubber, which lies beneath the holluschak's gkin, was almost too much at times even for the mate's accustomed nostrils. In a few hours' time a winrow of limp and furry bodies stretched away into the darkness, and the panting men flung themselves down upon the stones, aching in every joint. The mate's right arm felt heavy as lead, and his sleeve was soaked with blood to the shoulder, while the perspiration dripped down into his eyes. But his share of the work was done, for now there remained only f,he task of skinning the seals before the daylighs came, and this waa ibe Indians' business. So be curled up ander the lee of » boulder, watching the wild, bloodstained figures ply the glinting Knives and sucking at his pipe, until the sea fog closed down again and blotted out the moonlight. — From " Sayward's Raid," in Macmillan'a.