Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-05-27
Sealing IN newfoundland.

Sealing operations are vigorously
conducted by the inhabitants of st.
Johns. In former days the seal fishery
was carried on in sailing vessels, and
was attended with considerable danger;
but now that steamships are used the
risk is much diminished. The paying
nature of the business may be gathered
from the fact that steamers of five or
six hundred tons burden, built and
fitted for the purpose, and quite useless
for any other trade, make large profit
in average years, although the sealing
season lasts only month or six weeks.
Early in the spring. about the begin
ming of March, the ice from the north
strikes in toward the eastern coast of
Newfoundland, bringing with it hun
dreds and hundreds of thousands of
seals, young and old. Then st. Johns
wakes up, and the whole island is in a
hustle. Though it entails constant ex-
posure to great cold, and extremely
hard work. the young men struggle
eagerly to secure berth for the sealing
season, for they earn very high wages
and the business is sailed with that
element of uncertainty and danger
which adds such relish to life.
At length everything is ready, and n
fleet of steamers from st. Johns, and of
sailing craft of all kinds and sizes from
large coasting schooners down to open
boats, issuing from every bay, start ont
to look for the ice. The ships, crowded
with as many men as they can hold,
make two trips of about fortnight S
duration each; the first being devoted
to the capture of the young seals. at
that time only few weeks old. and the
second to the destruction OF the full
grown animals. The latter are gen
orally shot, while the former are Knocked
on the heads with clubs. As soon as
the ice is reached. the men scatter
themselves about the field, running
over the rough surface. jumping on
loose pieces of ice, tumbling into holes
and scrambling out again, wild with
excitement in their search for seals.
Each man acts independently. doing
the best he can for himself, When he
has killed a seal, he stops but minute
to whip off the skin with the blubber
attached. and fasten q cord to it. and
then of again after another seal. till he
has got as many as he can drag, when
he returns, towing his load behind him
to the ship. The men work with a
Will, giving themselves scarcely tine to
eat or rest, for they receive share of
the profits according to the number OF
seals that each man brings in. and. il
the season Is successful, an active and
daring man will make large sum of
money. The seals are valuable only
for the oil which is tried out of the fa;
and which is employed for various lu
brlcatlng purposes, and for their skins.
which are tanned and used principally
1 believe, for shoe leather. They 10
not produce the pelt, which. when
plucked and dyed, is worked mn into
those lovely seal-skin jackets. TINT are
as destructive to the purse as thew are
delightful to the eye. The number of
seals brought in annually is very great
as many as 500, 900 having been killed
in single season. and the business en-
ploys about 10 COO men. What becomes
of the multitude of surviving seals is a
problem / have never heard salsfac-
torily solved. The ice, on which they
come down in swarms every year from
the north, melts during the summer
months soon after coming in contact
with the warm waters Of the Gulf
Stream. What then becomes of the
seals? Do they find their way back
through thousands Of watery miles to
their polar birthplace. or do they re-
main scattered about along the shores
of Newfoundland and the nelgl boring
continent Ii is problem III natural
history Earl Dunraven, in Nineteenth
Century.