434 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



" I think the best way to salt skins on the ro^ks is to build up a place with rocks high enough 

 to let the rain water run under them. Take the largest skins and form a circle with the tails in 

 the center, each skin laid down blubber side up. After rubbing well with salt and leaving enough 

 on to cure it, which will depend, of coarse, on the size and thickness of the skin, take and fold in 

 the sides far enough to take in the nipper boles. Then fold over the neck far enough so that it 

 will not turn back. By so doing the outer edges of the circle will be kept the highest and will 

 keep in all the pickle. If the edges get too high the small skins can be salted spread out flat in 



the center. 



" When taken on board the vessel the skins should be examined, and if there are any places 

 that are clear of salt and feel soft and look pinky, and a little thicker than the rest of the skin, care 

 should be taken to rub salt well into those parts. On board the vessel they can be salted any- 

 where that there is room to form a kench clear of water underneath, or they can be booked up and 

 stowed away. 



" To book a skin, fold the sides just as in kenching, then fold neck and tail in until they meet 

 equal, and then fold again. A large skin would have to be folded more times than a small one. 



" There are a few things that are handy for the men to have on the rocks, such as a small hook 

 like a cotton hook, for each man; also a hook or two for each rock, like a chain-hook, only shorter, 

 shanked with an eye large enough to bend a rope in. These are very useful to haul seal out of 

 caves, gulches, and cracks in the rocks. Almost always in killing a large number of seals at one 

 time a good many will tumble down in gulches in heaps. These should be hauled out as soon as 

 possible and laid separate on the rocks so as not to heat. If there are a great many and the day is 

 warm it would be well to rip them open and let the heat out. 



" In resalting skins for shipment I just cover the lower head of the cask with salt, book up 

 the skins, stow in a course as tight as possible, stamp them down, sprinkle salt on them, and so 

 on with successive layers until the cask is full." 



FUR-SEAL HUNTING IN 1797. 



In the unpublished diary of Eben Townsend, before alluded to, we find the following interesting 

 account of the manner of taking the fur-seals and the care of their skins in the early days of the 

 fishery. 



Under date of States Harbor, Falkland Islands, December 25, 1797, Mr. Townsend says : 

 " In the middle of winter we left James Ellis on one of the islands to take care of skins. He 

 carelessly got out of fire, and was without it fifteen days. The principal inconvenience was that 

 he could not cook, was obliged to eat his limpets and pork raw. He did not suffer from the cold. 

 The fuel used by a sealing crew among these islands is the blubber or fat of the seal. This makes 

 the men nearly as black as negroes. They cook the haslet with the fat of the seal both for fuel 

 and fat, and it tastes very much like a hog's haslet. A sealing crew want a good stock of bread, 

 molasses, and peas for coifee, and they can get along with little beef and pork, but to be out of 

 bread or molasses for sweetening their coffee is very uncomfortable. They get very much attached 

 to what they call slops, which is tea and coffee, in this cold uncheerful country. We now have 

 on board about 30,000 fur-seal skins, which we have got by great exertion. I believe every 

 island where there was any prospect for seals has been thoroughly examined. We calculated on 

 getting our cargo at these islands and are much disappointed at not having any more. There are 

 some few hair-seals and sea-elephants among these islands, but they are now pretty well cleared 

 of everything but birds and hogs. 



