NEEDLESS WASTE OF SEAL-LIFE. 551 



pressing it. The color of this oil is dark brown. Before the res- 

 idue is put into the caldrons, capable of holding 200 'pouds' 

 (7,200 pounds) each, it is thrown into a receptacle with an in- 

 clined bottom, and the whole mass is stirred violently by means 

 of wooden shovels. This is done in the sunlight, so that the 

 heat may help to melt the mass. This receptacle is joined to 

 the caldron by a large gutter, which is walled up in the furnace. 

 Through this gutter, the residue is led into the caldron, there to 

 melt, which done, the mass is taken out with dippers and cast 

 into a box, which is then pressed. By means of this last opera- 

 tion all the remaining oil contained in the residue is extracted. 



"The oil factory of the Sapojnikow Brothers formerly man- 

 ufactured about 100,000 < ponds' (3,600,000 pounds) of seal- 

 oil, which was sent to Moscow, where it was chiefly used in 

 leather-factories; but during the last fifteen years, this estab 

 lishment has gone considerably, and other wealthy Astrachan 

 merchants, among them Messrs. Ylasow, Smoline, and Ore"k- 

 how, have established several factories for the oil. 



" The skins of the seals are used for making knapsacks and 

 for covering valises."* 



WASTEFUL DESTRUCTION OF SEALS. 



There is often a lamentably great and needless waste of Seal- 

 life at the Newfoundland and other sealing-grounds. Mr. Car- 

 roll, in 1871, pointedly called the attention of the government 

 authorities to the so-called " panning " process, as a matter 

 calling for statutory regulation. He says, " No greater in- 

 jury can possibly be done to the seal fishery than that of bulk- 

 ing seals on pans of ice, by crews of ice-hunters. Thousands 

 of seals are killed and bulked, and never seen afterwards. 

 When the men come up with a large number of old and young 

 seals, that cannot get into the water, owing to the ice being in 

 one solid jam, they drive them together, selecting a pan sur- 

 rounded with rafted ice, on which thousands of seals are placed 

 one over the other, perhaps fifteen deep. A certain number of 

 men is picked out by the ship master to pelt and put on board 

 the bulked seals, whilst others are sent to kill more. It often 

 happens that the men are obliged to go from one to ten miles, 

 before they come up with the seals again, and very often the 

 men pile from five hundred to two thousand in each bulk, which 



*Rep. U. S. Coinmis. Fish and Fisheries, pt. iii, 1673-4 and 1874-5, pp. 

 95, 96. 



