The Portland daily press., 1898-03-08
sEALERs OF NEWFOUNDLAND.
An Old Hand Relates Some Experiences o
Seal Hunting on Pac Il Ice.

On fixed date and at fixed hour, al
ways March IL at 2 p. M, the Newfound-
land sealing feet starts from st. Johns
on its yearly cruise for seals. 1t Is gala
day in the city and harbor The munici-
pal buildings and shipping are decked
With flags, and wharves and docks are
crowded with people who have gathered
ment OF cheers and waving handkerchiefs
the steamers, spick and span with fresh
paint and bunting, move in slow process
showdown the harbor. Once at sea, upon
the blue water, the feet scatters as the
race for the sealing grounds begins.
Along the east coast of the island, from
conception Bay northward, upon the
shore ice and the great packs drifted
down from Greenland, are the seals with
their young, and the first vessels to ar
rive and get to business are the ones like
Hest to return in April with full fares.
The system Of sharing proportionately in
he catch, similar to that which prevails
in whaling, keeps men and officers up to
their best work. The sealing season lasts
only three or four weeks, and the chances
OF wind and weather and the finding of
seals give to the short cruise the excite
ment of a lottery.
81 have sailed out of St. Johns on five
sealing cruises. In these trips I got
enough of the business and decided to
stay ashore" said Newfoundland man
now residing in New York to Sun re-
porter. "Once arrived at the sealing
fields it is work. fast and furious, through
every hour of the day and night that
work can be done in. The first streak of
daylight finds the steamer against the
pack setting the first OF her hunting par
ties upon the ice-or, If she cannot come
alongside the foe, sending them off in
boats. Every party upon floating ice
keeps with 1t boat. with provisions
and water and some kind of lamp or
stove for the burning Of SEALS biubber,
for there is no knowing when or in what
shape the hunters will be able to get
aboard their ship again. A steamer may
have parties out upon several foes and
these may drift as many ways apart IN
the course of day SO that to pick up all
| the men at night is an impossibility.
'The first thing the hunting party does
after disem barking upon the ice is to set
| a signal to mark the place where the men
| are to gather on their return. Then the
| men separate, starting by twos over the
| ice in search of seals. Each man carries
| a rope and a stout stick, which serves as
| q Waiting pole in jumping cracks on the
Toe and as a club for killing seals. Both
| the rope and stick come into use in help
| ing man out of the water. thing that
has often to be done in seal hunting.
when seals are sighted the first aim
of the hunters is to get between them and
the water-this can usually be done II
they are sleeping-then knock on the head
as many as possible before they can flop
past the hunters and off the ice. A seal,
particularly young one, is very easily
skinned. The blubber adheres to the
skin; they are taken off together and in
| that shape are carried to the ship and
slowed away for the passage. At the end
of the days hunting the two men tie the
skins up with the ropes and drag them
back to the meeting place agreed on.
| This is the hardest part of the day g
work, and the hunters are lucky II q
crevasse too wide to pass has not opened
| in the ice since morning, cutting them
off from the boat and comrades, or II a
fog or snow squall does not come to shut
them off from human sight until the air
clears.
The Greenland ice brings down some
queer visitors now and then from the tar
north, I have seen the Arctic fox rum
ming around on the ice fields, and once
two Arctic wolves kept two of us COM
pany on pack where we were hunting
for several days. Some accident had set
them adrift-a sudden storm, perhaps,
which had divided the field Ice from the
shore-and they had not ventured to
swim to land, and were carried off on the
foe. They had been on short commons
during their voyage apparently, for when
my companion and l went little dis
lance away they came boldly up to feed
on the seals we had skinned. We had NJ
gun or we could easily have shot them.
For three days they played among the
hummocks and became quite tame tow
ard us. Then, six hours before the
steamers came round to take us OH, the
foe we were on bumped against the shore
4 ice, and the wolves skipped to land.
ARCTIC owls often light on the hummooks
of the ice fields and rest as they flap their
way north or south.
more formidable visitors sometimes
seen on the ice pack are polar bears;
| These are stray ones, which have found
the abundance of seals so attractive that
they stayed with them until they got too
far from the Greenland coast to venture
to swim back. They do not offer to at
tack the seal hunters, but run from
them, usually swimming to another foe
when they appear. Only once have ]
heard of polar bears showing fight at
such time A party of ssalers, hunting
with firearms, came Unexpectedly upon a
white bear. He would have run from
them, but they all opened fire upon him,
wounding him slightly. At that he
turned and made for the hunters. Their
guns were muzzle leaders, SO there was
no time to reload them, and they would
have Jared badly but for the courage and
readinss of an Eskimo, who WAS with the
party. He carried harpoon, and hang
ing sealskin on the point Of it, he ran
to meet the bear, thrusting the sealskin
in the creatures face. AS the bear
stopped for an instant to tear the skin to
pieces, the Eskimo lodged round to one
side, thrust the harpoon into the bears
shoulder and ran, There was hunter
whose gun had missed fire. The delaying
of the bear by the Eskimo gave this man
time to prime the piece, and a lucky
shot broke the bears shoulder. Even at
that the bear kept the hunters lively in
lodging away from him until some Of
them reloaded their pieces and finished
him. The skin was sold to Gloucesel
fishing skipper, and / believe went al
last to some New England museum