The Nome daily nugget., 1935-01-19


 of seals we get off Newfoundland, some of them ask why don't bring them fur coats7 I feel like thirty cents, knowing I can't comply with their wishes. We'll, am sorry, 1 tell them, but the seals we go after are the hair seals, and all they are good for Is to make soap and pock- etbooks."
 There are several different kinds of seals around the shores of New foundland and the Gulf of St. Law renee; the square fiipper, the horse head or gray seal, the jar or ringed seal, the bay or shore seal, the harp seal, and the hooded seal. The harp and the hood are the two kinds that the Newfoundland sealers hunt in their sealing vessels. The first four varieties mentioned hang about Newfoundland and other northern waters, in small groups, but only the hood and the harp herds beat away to the northward and return to their whelping grounds in an un- nual migration over 2,O00 miles of ocean.
 Harp Is the Best Seal.
 The seal par excellence Is the harp. AS an adult 1t carries a gray colored patch on the back, shaped like a harp, for which 1t is named. The harp yields more oil than the hood and the young are easy to handle. Because 1t gathers in close herds, less time is required in hunt ing 1t.
 After having been down to the Banks, the harps work northward to a'vast sea eddy eastward of Belle Isle strait, and also in to the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the west of the Magdalens. Now they are the sport of wind and weather of stormy March. and until the coming of the airplane spotter the seal shippers had nothing but their own Judgment and experience to bring them to the herd.
 The harp seal seeks new ice that is, Ice few inches thick that forms In the open leads between the heavier ice. Only In new ice can the harp bore bobbing holes and get to its young, which are born on the new ice.
 The baby harp looks like a fluffy white huff with two large, liquid brown eyes peering out. It is as woolly as gosling. Later the hairs become longer and whlter, un- til in about 20 to 9 days the young seals roll the white coats off in their movements around the ice and become ragged jackets" This white, woolly coat Is replaced by a hair coat covered with dark spots the size of an American quarter dollar.
 In its first days the puppy seal Is helpless and dependent on it's mother. It whines like baby. The weight at birth Is about seven pounds. Drinking it's mother's rich milk, it puts on pound to pound and a half day.
 Sealing is a hard life.
 Men on board a sealer are damned in as tight as sardines in a box, particularly in the smaller wooden vessels. Going out, every available bit of space is filled with coal, with ice-fghting equipment, sealers' chests, dunnage bags and sealing gear, and men as thick as flies around a molasses puncheon. ' A sealer carries provisions for two months and a half-70 to so barrels of potatoes, 100 quintals of codfish, so barrels of flour, 35 bar rels of pork, many pounds of tea, molasses to sweeten the tea, but ter, turnips. and beans.
 Contrast in Menus.
 Could some of the old sealing crews take look at what's going on now, they would be shell-shocked with wonder. They'd think the fish cry was ruined on account of lux urious living. They had nothing but hard biscuit and tea, pork and duff, with little grease in the duff. No soft bread whatever.
 The men go overheard in gangs, or watch crews, 40 to 30 men in a watch. The master watch is re- sponsible for the working of the men and their safety. Each crew tries to beat the other crew. and each man tries to beat the other man. Where the seals are fairly plentiful, the master watch raises marker flag and leaves some men, and then another flag and more men.
 The mother. harp goes down bobbing hole, as the sealer ap- breaches. Young seals are saucy and will come for man until he snogs them with his bat. He turns the dead whitecoat on it's back and slits 1t down the belly. Then he carefully cuts the body away from the pelt, which is the skin with the white fat fastened to 1t, and then cuts off the hinder daddles (black fiippers). One or both front flip pers may be removed.