The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-12-13
Sealing.

Inc ScstlS VI bu0 NOTIu AIldublC drO
not hunted for their fur, as are their |
Alaskan cousins, but chiefly for their
oil, and secondarily for their skins. 1t
is an industry which profitably employs
hundreds of ships and thousands of
seamen, and it receives the name of
" Sealing"
You may know that near the end of
winter enormous herds, chiefly of the
harp-seals, come down and congregate
upon the floating fields of ice eastward
of Newfoundland, where the young are
born in March. These are the place
and season of the largest fishery, but
the locality is never fixed nor certain
the fields, approached simultaneously
by sailing fleets and steamers from
Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Scotland,
England, France, Germany and Nor
way, must be sought for every year as
though for the first time. This is in
the icy, tempestuous North Atlantic, at
the most stormy period of the year.
Dreadful gales may drive the ships any
where but where they seek to go, bergs
may be hurled against them, the ice
may jam them between its ponderous
edges and crush the doubly-braced
hulls into splinters, or cleanly cut away
parts of the bottom, and leave the
NeSSclS 10 SILK anu the Iutn 10 save
themselves as best they may upon
broken and drifting ice. Often field
of thin " "bay-ice " will lie right in the
path. Then the ship dashes into it as
far as its power can force it. When it
sticks, the crew leap overheard, chop
and break the field into cakes which are
showed under the foe or hauled out on
top; or, if it is too thick to be broken.
saws are brought out, and canal is
slowly made for the ships progress.
This is time of great desire for haste,
and you may well believe that every
man works with all his might.
Well, when all this toll and danger
are sometimes greatly pro-
longed, and in the midst of frozen sea
and the most violent storms the
ship has the good luck to sight herd,
then begins for the crew of hardy sail
ors season of about the most arduous
labor that one can imagine.
If the weather permit, the vessel is
run into the ice, and moored there; if
not, it sails back and forth in open
spaces, managed by the Captain and one
or two others, while the remainder of
the crew, sometimes sixty or seventy,
or even more in number, get into boats
and row swiftly to the foe. The young
seals lie scattered about here and there,
basking in the sun or sheltered under the
lee of hummock, and they lie so thick
| IL that half a dozen will often be seen
in a space twenty yards square. They
| can not get away, or at most can only
founder about, and their plaintive
bleatings and white coats might almost
be those of lambs. The old seals are
frightened away by the approach of the
| sailors, and never show fight, and the
youngsters are easily killed; so the men
do not take guns, but only clubs, with
which they strike the poor little fellows
a single blow on the head, usually kill
ing them at once.
| Having struck down all they can see
| within short distance, the small squad
af men who work together then quickly
a.in, or Gas they call it) "sculp =" them,
with a broad clasp-knife, cutting cleal
| through the thick layer of fat which lies
underneath the hide, and so leaving q
surprisingly small carcass behind.
Bundles are then made of from three to
seven "pelts," and each man drags a
bundle towards the boat. This is some
/ times miles distant, the ice is rough and
broken, he must feap cracks, trust him.
self to isolated cakes, and often falls
into the freezing water, or loses his way
| IN sudden Squau OF snow. It is nmD-
cracking and ife-rsking work, and, to
accomplish it successfully, man must
school his muscles to endurance, his
nerves to peril, and his heart to bitter
cruelty; but.every pelt is worth dol
lari
By night. after the seal-meadow,' -
has been attacked, the decks of the ves-
sci are hidden under deep layer of fat,
slippery pelts. After these have lain
long enough to get cool. they are slowed
away in the hold in pairs, each pair hav-
ing the hair outward. The hold is di.
vided by stout partitions into compart-
ments or pounds" in order to prevent
the cargo from moving about and SC
rubbing the fat into oil, which would
speedily fill every part of the hold and
the cabins, spelling all the provisions.
A vessel once had to be abandoned
from this accident, because it had not
been pounded" The European ships
however, generally separate the fat al
once and stow it in casks.-ETrest In
gersoH, in st. Nicholas.