The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-12-15
SEAL HUNTING.
The Hunters a Dirty, Oily Set---Cu-
riOUs Facts from SeaI-Hnnting Ex-


The Hunters a Dirty, Oily set---Cu-
riOus Facts from seal Hunting Ex-
periences.
Detroit Free Press
A motley and curious lot are the men who
for few weeks in the year hunt the seal, says
letter writer at ST. Johns, n. F. Stalwart in
frame, and used to the sea until they have alb
solute contempt of its terrors, bold in adven-
ture OH the treacherous ice foes and marvel
ously skilled in seal lore, they make up a body
Of men in some respects not to be matched on
the globe Crowded like pigs on sailing
steamer, they cultivate positive affection for
dirt, and regard it as kind of honorable
badge for their adventurous calling. During
a voyage of several weeks they never take OF
their clothes, even to sleep. The oil from seal
blubber fairly drips from their garments, dirt,
SCOT and tar adhere to their faces in steadily
thickening strata, and when they finally enter
port to strut the street in unwashed glory they
are incarnate emblems of filth and odor. (
night in St Johns after the arrival of two or
three lucky seal crews means bedlam for the
city. Honest burghers fly the streets and look
well to the doors and shutters O. nights. On
the ice the endurance. sure-footedness and
daring of the seal hunters are well nigh
Incredible They leap from cake
to cake where it seems even
child could not be sustained, drag their heavy
boats long distances through the hummocks
and think nothing of passing a night on the
ice far from the steamer, provided only seal
are near. Their cold hands they warm by
thrusting them in the gashes cut in the still
FACILITATING carcass Of the seal, and one in
stance is recorded where a freezing sealer
saved his life by heapmg up the CORY car
casses for night over his own body. When
hunting the sealers go by twos, so that one
can aid bis companion should he fall in the
water between the foes. Though the finding
of the seal herds is largely matter Of luck,
considerable depends on the sagaclty of the
captain who, if up to his business, watches
carefully the winds of late February and
early March, so as to know where and when
the ice can best be met
Curious and isolated facts gathered from
sealing experiences are related here without
number Some years ago, during All other
wise bad season, the seals Sstruck IN" on the
ice near the Newfoundland coast while the
steamers were away Women and children,
leaving the shore, engaged in the slaughter,
and during few days 64, GOO head were killed
within few miles of St Johns. At about the
same time a eyclops among the seals was
found with only single perfectly developed
eve exactly in the center of the forehead. In
another case large, shapely anima had eight
| fippers instead of four, the usual number.
The fiippers of the novel creature, all OF full
size, were arranged symmetrlcally by four on
the upper and lower parts of the body.
| Whether these specimens We're freaks of
nature or represented separate Species is a
3 - 10
seal, by the way, when fried are reckoned a
rare dainty by the islanders and are often
! brought back from the ice in long strings to
be kept for food When, as rarely happens,
more seals are found than n single steamer
can load the surplus are killed aud the pelts
/ heaped on the ice, to be marked with the
steamers flag In that case an unl0aded YES
sci can bring in the pelts and demand GER
tain large percentage of their value. On their
second voyage out the steamers seek the ful
/ grown animals, which weigh some ~ pounds
! They are fierce fellows, who force rhelr way
to the water and have to be shot, making the
process of collecting pelts slow and unprOtita-
bic as compared with the capture of new
born herd
When the steamers arrive the pelts are I'M
loaded and transferred to the oil factories
which line the border of st Johns harbor.
! The blubber is separated from the pelt to be
/ tried into oil, which is used for lubricstlng,
! for the fine soaps and dozen other purposes.
/ The skins are sailed, then sent to Europe,
where they are tanned into coarse but hand
some leather, particularly beautiful for its
/ grainlng, and worked up for purses, costly
bookbinding and like uses As stated, the
sealing business of the north Atlantic is
/ almost monopolized by Observation-Disclosures
! A feet of steamers belonging to a firm at
Dundee, Scotland, come every year to st.
Johns, but they take their crews on here aud
mere also is the factory of the owners. The
monopoly is now and promises to be for all
time natural one, founded on proximity to
the ice, and still firmer on the long traditions,
the trained expe fence and the almost reckless
snterprise OF the bold island sealers.