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"Believe it's that seal-fishery business?" asked Dave, as he and the ensign took their watch. "No." Dave was certain from the tone that the doctor had confided his secret to the ensign. He asked no more questions. So they drifted on. The wind had dropped. The swell rolled their craft as it plowed along. Here and there a sea-lion thrust its ugly head from the water.
Very occasionally a schooner from Capetown does visit them; but, as the seals are almost exterminated, there is less and less inducement to make the voyage. Like almost all the southern islets, this group has been in its time the scene of a wonderfully productive seal-fishery.
As well might it be objected that a tiny rivulet on the mountain-top is not the fountain-head of a mighty river, because its course is not marked by broad expanses and thundering cataracts. Grummidge's net was undoubtedly the beginning, the tiny rill, of the Newfoundland seal-fishery, and even the bludgeoning was initiated by one of his party. It happened thus:
"Yes, I grant that," replied the other; "but, if we land there and manage to hold out till September or October, only three months at the outside, a lot of whaling craft generally put into Kerguelen for the seal-fishery about that time, and I daresay we could get one of these to take us to the Cape."
The master stated in reply that he was under the orders of the captain of an American ship, the General Knox, engaged in the seal-fishery at West Island, to the west of the Falklands. An officer was at once deputed to go and ascertain from the captain what succour he could render to the French travellers.
We have already seen how like a noble river, which has its fountain-head in some mountain lakelet that would scarcely serve as a washing-basin for a Cyclops the grand cod-fishing industry, which has enriched the world, and found employment for thousands of men for centuries, had its commencement in the crew of the Water Wagtail! we shall now show that another great industry, namely, the Newfoundland seal-fishery, had its origin in the same insignificant source.
It must be remembered that the failure of their seal-fishery always involves a double calamity, for it not only deprives them of food, but of fuel for their lamps.
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