a wall he follows, looking for an opening, and may be led insensibly into the labyrinthine circle at its end from which he will hardly escape.  If he heads back towards shore where he came in, he is frightened by the shallow water which he disregarded only when in pursuit of his prey.  Where was shallow water indeed he may now find dry land for the tide is running out.  So the creature becomes bewildered.  He swims about slowly, as it were feeling his way, or disappears at the bottom, to be stranded when the tide goes out and thus becomes the prey of his enemy, man.

Some old belugas are very cunning; they are called by the French Canadian the savants, the knowing ones, and seem to understand the wiles of the fisherman.  They warn off the others and so foil the design against them.  But greediness proves often their destruction.  From over-feeding year after year they become fat and stupid and they too are likely in time to be taken.  The less knowing beluga has usually slight chance of escape when once he encounters the line of stakes stretching out from the point and, since they follow each other blindly, if one is taken a whole troop is likely to meet the same fate.

The Abbe Casgrain, who, since his childhood was spent at the Manor House at Riviere Ouelle, was long familiar with the “porpoise” fishery, describes the scene witnessed there by him on May 1st, 1873.  It was a glorious day and the belugas appeared in greater numbers than for many years.  They swarmed off the mouth of the Riviere Ouelle.  At high tide they came in, skirting the rocks within a stone’s throw of shore and devouring greedily the innumerable small fish.  The surface of the shallow water in which they swam was white with their gleaming bodies.  When they puffed they spurted jets of water into the air which fell in spray that sparkled in the sunlight.  The Abbe then describes how the creatures became entrapped in the fishery.  Instances of the mother’s devotion are recorded.  They have been known to wait outside the stakes for their young, caught within, and to allow themselves to be stranded and killed rather than leave their offspring.

When the tide is low the slaughter begins.  In the season of the spring tide the water at Riviere Ouelle retreats so far that the entrapped “porpoises” are left high and dry in the fishery and are readily killed.  But in the season of neap tides enough water is left for them to swim about within the semi-circle of stakes.  Boats are taken into the fishery through the outer line of stakes and then begins a regular whale hunt within a very circumscribed area.  If the belugas are numerous their captors have not a moment to lose for the creatures may escape with the next tide.  And numerous they sometimes are; 500 have been taken in a single tide; at Riviere Ouelle, about 1870, 101 were killed in one night by only four men.  They had not expected such a host and had no time to send for help before the tide should rise again.