THE FUK^SEAL INDUSTRY OF GAPE FLATTEKY. 395 



of January iu Fuea Strait near \Vaadda Island at the entrance to Neah Bay. The Indians killed 

 on that day forty-five. This is as early as [ have any recollection of, although the old Indians 

 tellmetheyhaveknownthem to make their appearance, but raiel.\,as early as tin- last nf Decem- 

 ber. I think their appearance for au average period often years past would be about the 1st of 

 March. They remain some seasons as late as July and August, but in 1880 the last catch was 

 made about the L'Oth of June. 



Until within a few years past the Indians have gone to sea boldly in their canoes, starting 

 out by daybreak and returning at night. Three men usually go in a canoe at such times. Lat- 

 terly they have put their canoes on board the sealing schooners which take them to the sealing 

 grounds and lay by while the Indians went off in them and speared the seals. The canoes taken 

 on board the schooner have but two Indians in each. 



The outfit of each canoe consists of one aud sometimes two spears, which are fitted in the 

 following manner : A pole, 15 or 16 feet long, with a broad place at one end over which the fingers 

 are clasped, and fitted with two prongs at the other end, which are inserted into the sockets of 

 two barbed spear-heads, each attached to a stout line, either made fast to the pole near the middle 

 or held in the hand of spearsman. A club is also provided for knocking the seal on the head after 

 he is speared, and two buoys made of the skin of the hair-seal (Phoca Pealii Gill) taken off whole 

 and blown up with the hair side in. These buoys are used either to bend on to the spear line if 

 the animal is not easily killed, or in case of rough weather they are attached to each side of the 

 canoe a little forward of the center, and render her steady and seaworthy. 



After a strong wind and the accompanying heavy sea have subsided, the seals lie on their 

 backs in the water and sleep. Then the Indians cautiously and quietly approach them, and 

 selecting a victim, silently paddle near enough to thrust the spear deeply into its body, and at once 

 withdrawing the pole, leave the barbs embedded iu its flesh, sometimes killing it outright, but 

 often only wounding it; the barbed spear-head, however, holds fast, the line is quickly hauled in, 

 and the seal knocked on the head with the club. They smash in every seal's skull, whether it has 

 been killed by the spear or not, and so universal is this practice that although I have repeatedly 

 offered to pay Indians liberally for a perfect skull, I have been unable to procure a single speci- 

 men. 



The Indians here never use fire-arms to kill seals. They say the report would scare them 

 away, and they strongly object to white men using rifles on the sealing grounds. 



After the day's hunting is over, the canoes which have put off from the shore return with the 

 seals they have taken, which are then skinned by the women, either on the beach or in the lodges. 

 The canoes belonging to the schooners take their catch on board the vessels, which at first brought 

 them all on shore to be skinned, but this season they have been mostly skinned and salted on the 

 schooner. 



Each vessel takes as many canoes as she can carry, the number varying, according to the size 

 of the vessel, from eight to fifteen being the average, although the largest vessels can take twenty, 

 but very seldom exceed fifteen. The Indians pay one-third of their catch for having themselves 

 and their canoes transported to the sealing grounds and back to Neah Bay. 



These schooners have cabin accommodations for the officers and crews, and the Indians are 

 assigned quarters iu the hold among the salted skins, reeking carcasses and blubber of the seals, 

 for the Indians wish to save the blubber to make oil and the carcasses to use for food until they 

 are too plentiful, when they are thrown overboard, or, if skinned on shore, left on the beach for 

 the tide to remove. 



