120 



ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



dragged out. If it is a cool day, after bleeding the first " pod " which 

 has been prostrated in the manner described, and after carefully 

 drawing the slain from the heap in which they have fallen, so that 

 the bodies will spread over the ground just free from touching one 

 another, thej^ turn to and strike down another " pod," and so on, 

 until a whole thousand or two are laid out, or the drove, as cori-alled, 

 is finished. The day, however, must be raw and cold for this whole- 

 sale method. Then, after killing, they turn to work and skin; but 

 if it is a warm day, every pod is skinned as soon as it is knocked 

 doM'n. 



The labor of skinning is exceedingly sevei*e, and is trjang even to 

 an expert, demanding long practice ere the muscles of the ba.ck and 

 thighs are so developed as to permit a man to bend down to and finish 

 well a fair day's work. The knives used by the natives for skinning 

 are ordinary kitchen or case-handle butcher knives. They are sharp- 

 ened to cutting edges as keen as razors, but something about the 



The flensed carcass of a fur seal. 



The skin iis taken therefrom. 



skins of the seal, perhaps fine comminuted sand along the abdomen, 

 so dulls these knives as the natives work that they are constantlj^ 

 obliged to whet them. 



The body of the seal, preparatory to skinning, is rolled over and 

 balanced squarely on its back. Then the native makes a single swift 

 cut through the skin down along the neck, chest, and bell}^ from the 

 lower jaw to the root of the tail, using for this purpose his long stab- 

 bing knife. ^ The fore and hind flippers are then successively lifted 



' When turning the stunned and senseless carcasses, the only physical danger 

 of which the sealers run the slightest risk, during the whole circuit of their work, 

 occurs thus: At this moment the prone and quivering body of the "hoUuschak" is 

 not v.'holly inert, perhaps, though it is nine times out of ten; and, as the native 

 takes hold of a fore flipper to jerk the carcass over on to its back, the half brained 

 seal rouses, snaps suddeiilj' and viciously, often biting the hands or legs of the 

 unwary skinners, who then come leisurely and unconcernedly up into the surgeon's 

 office at the village for bandages, etc.; a few men are bitten every day or two dur- 

 ing the season on the islands, in this manner, but I have never learned of any seri- 

 ous result following any case. 



The sealers, as might be expected, become exceedingly expert in keeping their 



