ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 123 



ricli brown gravy follows the cooking- of the meat. Serve hot, and it is, 

 strictly judged, a very excellent meal for the daintiest feeder — and I 

 hereby recommend it confidently as a safe venture for any newcomer 

 to make. 



Meat of the sea lion. — The flesh of young sea lions is still better 

 than that of the fur seal, while the natives say that the meat of the hair 

 seal {Flioca vitulina) is superior to both, being more juicy. Fur-seal 

 meat is exceedingly dry; hence the necessity of putting bacon into the 

 fr3ang pan or stew pot with it. Sea-lion flesh is an improvement in this 

 respect, and also that its fat, strange to say, is wholly clear, white, 

 and inodorous, while the blubber of the " holluschickie " is sickening 

 to the smell, and will, nine times out of ten, cause any civilized 

 stomach to throw it up as quickly as it was swallowed. The natives, 

 however, eat &j great deal of it, simply because thej^ are too lazj^ to 

 clean their fur-seal cuts, and not because they really relish it. 



In this connection it may be well to add that the liver of both Cal- 

 lorliinus and Eumetopias is sweet and wholesome; or, in other words, 

 it is good as liver usually is in Fulton market. The tongues are 

 small, white, and fat. They are regularly cut out to some extent, 

 and salted in ordinarj^ water buckets for exportation to curious 

 friends. They have but slight claim to gastronomic favor. The 

 natives are, however, very partial to the liver; but, though they like 

 the tongues, yet they are too lazy to prejiare them. A few of them, 

 in obedience to pressing and j)rayerf ul appeals from relatives at Una- 

 laska, do exert themselves enough everj^ season to undergo the extra 

 labor of i^utting up a few barrels of fresh salted seal meat, which, 

 being carried down to Illoolook hy the company's vessels, afiiords a 

 delightful variation to the steady and monotonous codfish diet of the 

 Aleutian islanders. 



Other authorities on hair-seal meat. — \n. old writer, in describ- 

 ing men and things in the western islands of Scotland (Martin, 171G), 

 does not give the same evidence of apx^reciation. He says that the 

 Scotch there "salt the seals with the ashes of burnt seawaro (algoid 

 melanospermse), and sa,y they are good food. The vulgar eat them 

 commonly in the sijringtime, with a long pointed stick instead of a 

 fork, to i^revent the strong smell which their hands otherwise would 

 have for several hours afterwards. The flesh and broth of fresh j'oung 

 seals is, by experience, known to be pectoral. The meat is astringent, 

 and used as an effectual remedy against diarrhea and dysentery. The 

 liver of a seal being dried and pulverized, and afterwards a little of it 

 drank with milk (aquavitae) or red wine, is also good against fluxes." 



Again, "the seal, though esteemed onlj^ fit for the vulgar, is also 

 eaten by persons of distinction, though under a different name, to wit, 

 ham;" also, a pleasant smile involuntarilj^ arises to the face of the 

 naturalist when he learns from the same old writer that "the popish 

 vulgar of the islands to the southward from this [island] eat these 

 seals in Lent instead of fish." Martin refers to Plioca feet Ida, I think. 



Natives' use of fur-seal flesh medicinally. — I could not learn 

 from the natives on the Pribilof Islands that they held any notions of 

 medicinal virtue whatever in regard to the flesh of the fur seal or other 

 pinnipeds indigenous. They do make certain special uses of the liver, 

 gall, testes, etc., but the exact application I could not satisfactorily 

 determine. They considered the establishment of our surgeon and 

 pharmacy as a direct vote of censure upon their therapeutics, and were 

 too willing to forget what they knew whenever I asked leading ques- 

 tions on the subject. 



