The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1883-03-02
Seal Hunters.

A motley and curious lot are the men
who fol a few weeks in the year hunt
the seal, says letter writer at ST.
Johns, n. +. Stelwart in frame, used
to the sea until they have absolute con-
tempt of its terrors, bold IN adventures
or the treacherous ice foes and mar
velously skilled in the seal lore, they
make up body of men in some re-
spects not TO be matched on the globe.
Crowded like pigs in sealing steam
er they cultivate a positive affection
for dirt, and regard it as kind of hon
orable badge for their adventurous call.
ing. During voyage of several weeks
they never take off 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 the
incarnate emblems of filth. and odor.
A 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 night. 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 child could not
be sustained, drag their heavy boats a
long distance through the hammocks,
and think nothing of passing night
on the ice far from the steamer, provi-
ded seal are only near. Their cold
hands they warm by thrusting them in
the gashes cut in the still palpitating
carcass of the seal, and one instance is
, recorded where freezing sealer saved
his life by heaping up the CORY carcass
es for night over his own body
When hunting, the sealers go by twos
so that one can aid his companion
should he fall in the water between the
tloes. Though the finding of the sea-
herds is largely matter of luck, con
siderable depends on the sagacity OF
the captain, who, if up to his business
watches carefully the winds of late
February and early March, so as tc
know where and when the ice can bes,
be met.
/ Curious and isolated facts gathe, eG
from sealing experiences are related
here without number. Some years
ago, during an otherwise bad season
the seals struck in on the ice neal
the Newfoundland coast, while th'
steamers were away Women anC
: children, leaving the shore, engaged in
the slaughter, and during few days
$4,000 head were killed within a few
miles of st. Johns. The fippers o
8 the seal, by the way, when fried ar
r reckoned rare dainty by the islanders
and are often brought back from tn
e ice in long strings to be kept for food
: When, as rarely happens, more seal
, are found than single steamer ca
! load, the surplus are killed and the pelt
v heaped on the ice, to be marked wit
It the steamers flag In that case an III
It loaded vessel can bring in the pelts an
V demand certain large percentage @
t their value. On their second voyag
e out the steamers seek the full grow
d animals, which weigh some 200 pound,
l. They are fierce fellows, who force the
way to the water and have to be sho
e making the process of collecting pelt
+ slow and Improbable as compare
a with the capture of new born herd.
When the steamers arrive the pelt
l. are unloaded and transferred to til
oil factories which line the border c
II st. Johns harbor The blubber is sci
V arated from the pet to be fried into OF
Il which is used for lubricating, for IL
fine soaps and dozen other purpose
e The skins are salted, then sent to e.
% rope, where they are tanned into coar,
g but handsome leather, particular
e beautiful for its granting, and worke
It up for purses, costly bookbindng an
70 like uses. As stated, the sealing bus
Y. ness of the North Atlantic is almo
monopolized by the Newfoundlander
A fleet of steamers belonging to fir
at Dundee, Scotland, come every ye
b. to st. Johns, but they take their crew
4 on here, and here also is the factory
il the owners. The monopoly is no
# and promises to be for all time ns
n ural one, founded on proximity to u
,r ice, and still tirmer on the long trat
,r tions, the trained experience and t
a almost reckless enterprise of the bo
n island sealers.