Part 6 (1/2)
”Do you hear that noise?” he asked
”Of course I hear it,” the boy answered; ”that's oke me up But what is it?” he continued, as the roar swelled upon the wind
”What does it sound like?” the gunner asked him
The boy listened carefully for a minute or two and then shook his head
”Hard to say,” he answered ”It sounds like a cross between Niagara and a circus”
Scotty, who had overheard this, looked round
”That's not bad,” he said; ”that's just about what it does sound like”
”But what is the cause of it, Hank?” the boy queried again ”I never heard such a row!”
”Fur seals!” was the brief reply
”Seals?” said Colin, juerly ”Oh, where?”
”Sit down, boy,” interrupted the captain sternly; ”you'll see enough of seals before you get hoht, Captain Murchison,” Colin answered; ”I'm in no hurry to be home”
In spite of his recent loss the captain could not help a gri over his face at the boy's readiness for adventure, no ht lead But he had been a rover in his boyhood himself, and so he said no more
”Why, there must be millions of seals to make as much noise as that!”
Colin objected
”There aren't; at least, not noas Hank's reply ”There were tens of millions of fur seals in these waters when I made my first trip out here in 1860, but they've been killed off right an' left, saovernic sealin' allowed at all”
”What's pelagic sealing?” asked Colin
”Killing seals at sea,” the whaler answered ”That's wrong, because you can't always tell a young ht never to be killed But you'll learn all about it Beg pardon, sir,” Hank continued, speaking to the captain, ”but by the noise of the seals those must be either the Pribilof or the Co,” the captain answered ”Do you hear anything of the third boat?”
”No, sir,” answered the old whaler, after shouting a loud ”Ahoy!” to which but one ansas returned, ”but we'll see her, likely, when the fog lifts”
”Doesn't lift much here,” the captain said ”But with this offshore wind, they ought to hear the seals three or fourthrough the water slowly and the noise of the seals grew louder everywas so dense that it was barely possible to tell which was the east
”Funny kind of fog,” said Colin; ”see'lar seal fog,” Hank replied ”If it wasn't always foggy the seals wouldn't haul out here, an' anyway, there's always a lot of fog around a rookery Must be the breath of so many thousands o' seals, I reckon”
[Illustration: SPEARING SEALS AT SEA
Pelagic sealing by Aleut natives now forbidden by the governments of the United States, Great Britain, Russia, and japan
_Courtesy of the U S Bureau of Fisheries_]