Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-11-13
SEALING IN LABRADOR.
Three Ways in Which Seals Are
Sealing Fleet.

Three yyays in Which Seals Are Taken-The
Sealing Fleet.
Sealing, one of the peculiar indus
tries of Esquimaux Point and Natash-
Quan, is the most venturesome occupa-
ton of the Labrador coast. Seals are
taken in three ways-by hunting them
along the bays and shores in boats or
on the ice, by netting them as fish are
taken, and by following them out to
sea in vessels and killing them OF the
foes. | sometimes met a boat sailing
about the islands and bavs with two
men aboard eagerly watching the
water and the rocks for the harbor
seals. Dressed in coats and skull-caps
made of scal-skin, they often creep
along the rocks with the motions of
the seal. and decoy the animal by call
ing. Some of them have a trained
dog;
l inquired. HE can hardly be a re-
triever for animals weighing hundreds
of pounds"
Yes, he is, sir; if seals are fat when
killed, they float, but even if they are
very poor it takes but little to float
them. And the dog jumps off and
catches them often before they sink, or
he'll dive for them in shallow water.
When they sink in deep water we often
Jig them-haul them up with a fish
hook and line. Some seals dive when
wounded. and swim Off to sea; others
turn to the shore and crawl up on a
rock to die"
In the spring of the year they hunt
seals on the ice when it drifts against
the shores. Cape Baud, Newfound-
land, is a noted point for this kind of
sealing. The foes coming from the
northern ea strike on this cape and
divide into two parts: one enters the
Strait of Belle Isle, and the other goes
southwark along the coast of New
foundland.
The people told me that hundreds of
hunters came there in March with dog
sleds from the settlements about Hare
Bay, etc. Each gang of men brings a
skiff. provisions, etc, and many camp
in little huts, and remain till the Sth or
10th of May. They keep Il constant
watch owe the drifting fields of ice.
When seals are discovered on a foe
touching the shore or near it. the men
put off to it in their skitf, haul the boat
up on the ice, and then go about club
bing the seals. They soon return to
the shore with blubberand hides, which
they bury under snow for keeping until
a trading schooner calls. Sonnet mes
the wind or the current suddenly
~loosens the ice and carries it out to
sea. and the sport is the, quite peril
GUS. The netting of seals is not unlike
the taking OF fish in nets. A strong
net may be moorcd off . favorable
| point or in a channel, or. several nets
are combined and moored to form a
kind of pound. AT La Tabatiere. Cape
Mecatina. a noted resort of seals, the
combination OF net measures about
seven hundred fathoms. When seals
were abundant, several hundreds and
even thousands were taken there in a
season. In a favorable cove a net may
be sunk on the bottom until the seals
enter; then it is raised with a windlass
to close the entrance. and men in boats
row about the bay and drive the seals
into the meshes.
The ocean sealing is the, most costly
"u" PAoNuSC'NS iIcGiiOu. LOWcTIul
steamers. built expressly for this work,
and manned by two hundred to three
hundred men, are sent out every year
from st. Johns, Newfoundland, and
Dundee, Scotland. The sealing fleet
Of EsquimauN Point and N~atashquar
numbers about forty small schooners.
In 1881 they took thirty thousand seals,
but in 1882 only three thousand. The
strength of these vessels is remarkable.
The one | saw building at Esquimaux
Point had timbers twelve inches square
laid in solid, and bolted one to the
other, and the bow was a mass of
beams and braces. The oil is tried out
in furnaces along the beach; the hides
are sent to London for tanning.-C. II.
Farnhana, IN Harper's Magazine.