The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-06-22
Eealing.i

The seals of the North Atlantic are not
hunted for their fur, as are their Alaskan
cousins, but chiefly for their oil, and
secondarily for their skins. It is an in
dustry which proftably employs hun
dreds of ships and thousands of seamen,
aud it receives the names 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 To-
cality is never fixed nor certain; the
fields, approached simultaneously by
sailing fleets and steamers from New
foundland, Nova Scotia, Scotland, Eng
land, France, Germany and Norway,
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 anywhere but
where they seek to 60. 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
vessels to sink and the men to save them
selves as best they may upon the broken
and drifting ice. Often field of thin
ebay 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 ice
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 a time of great desire
for haste, and you may well believe
every man works with all his might.
Well, when all this toll and danger are
passed-sometimes greatly prolongt d,
and in the midst of frozen sea and the
most violent storms-and the ship has
the good luck to sight herd, then be-
gins for the crew .of hardy sailors 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 thickly that
half dozen will often be seen in space
twenty yards square. They cannot get
away, OF 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 killing them
at once.
Having struck down all they can see
within short distance, the small squad
of men who work together then quickly
skin, or las they call IT. ''sculp" them
with broad clasp knife, cutting clear
through the thick layer of fat whichilies
underneath the hide, and SO
leaving q surprisingly small car
cass behind. Bundles are then
made from three to seven "pelts,"
and each man drags Q budle tov ar
the boat. This is sometimes miles dis
tant, the ice is rough and broken, he
must leap cracks, trust himself to leo
lated cakes, and often. he falls into the
freezing water, or loses his way in sud
den squall of snow. It is imb-cracking
and life-risking work, and, to accomplish
it successfully, . man must school his
muscles to endurance. his nerves to PEI
and his heart to bitter cruelty; but every
pelt is worth dollarl
BY night, after ''seal-meadow" has
been attacked, the decks Of the vessel
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 hsv
ing the hair outward. The hold is
divided by stout partitions into compart-
mants, or pounds" in order TO prevent
the cargo from moving about and 10 rub
bing the fat into oil, which would speed
lily fill every part OF the hold and the
cabins, spelling al the provisions. A
vessel once had to be abandoned from
this accident, becsuse it had not been
pounded" The European ships, how
ever, generally separate the fat ct once
and stow il in aasks.-[ From SEALS and
Sealing in the North Atlantic, by Ernest
InRersoll. in st. Nicholas for June.
Wemea q Seuraalisss.