or among three hundred men hundreds of miles from anywhere. The
result was a decision to return early from my lecture tour and go out
with the seal hunters of the good ship Neptune.

I look back on this as one of the great treats of my life; though I
believe it to be an industry seriously detrimental to the welfare of
the people of the Colony and the outside world. For no mammal bringing
forth but one young a year can stand, when their young are just born
and are entirely helpless, being attacked by huge steel-protected
steamers carrying hundreds of men with modern rifles or even clubs.
Advantage is also taken of the maternal instinct to get the mothers as
well as the young "fat," if the latter is not obtainable in sufficient
quantities. Meanwhile the poor scattered people of the northern shores
of Newfoundland are being absolutely ruined and driven out. They need
the seals for clothing, boots, fresh food, and fats. They use every
portion of the few animals which each catches, while the big steamers
lose thousands which they have killed, by not carrying them at once to
the ship and leaving them in piles to be picked up later. Moreover, in
the latter case all the good proteid food of their carcasses is left
to the sharks and gulls.

At twelve o'clock of March 10, 1896, the good ship Neptune hauled out
into the stream at St. John's Harbour, Newfoundland, preparatory to
weighing anchor for the seal fishery. The law allows no vessels to
sail before 2 P.M. on that day, under a penalty of four thousand
dollars fine--nor may any seals be killed from the steamers until
March 14, and at no time on Sundays. The whole city of St. John's
seemed to be engrossed in the one absorbing topic of the seal fishery.
It meant if successful some fifty thousand pounds sterling at least to
the Colony--it meant bread for thousands of people--it meant for days
and even weeks past that men from far-away outports had been slowly
collecting at the capital, till the main street was peopled all day
with anxious-looking crowds, and all the wharves where there was any
chance of a "berth" to the ice were fairly in a state of siege.

Now let us go down to the dock and visit the ship before she starts.
She is a large barque-rigged vessel, with auxiliary steam, or rather
one should say a steamer with auxiliary sails. The first point that
strikes one is her massive build, her veritable bulldog look as she
sits on the water. Her sides are some eighteen inch