ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 403 



knife to rapidly cut the skin clean and free from the body (and blubber) 

 which he rolls over and out from the hide, by hauling im on it as he 

 advances with his work, standing- all this time stooped over the carcass 

 so that his hands are but slightly above it, or the ground. This opera- 

 tion of skmning a fair-sized holluschiekie talies the best men onhi one 

 mmuteand a half! but the average time made by the gang on the 

 ground is about four minutes to the seal. Nothing 'is left of the skin 

 upon the carcass save a small patch of each upper lip on which the 

 coarse mustache grows, the skin on the tip of the lower jaw, the insiffni- 

 ncant tail," together with the bare hide of the flip]>ers. 



During the last Ave, six, or seven years, a somewhat different method 

 has been in vogue, by which change the work has been exiiedited verv 

 much Two or three white men, servants of the company leasinff the 

 islands, together witli two or three of the natives, alone constitute the 



fi i"^',''^,''^'^^^'"^' ^'^''^^- ^^^^ "^^^^e the selection and knock down 

 the killable seals as the pods are driven up by them in swift rotation: 

 then, lour or hve of the younger sealers constitute a force known as the 

 "flippering' and stabbing or ''sticking" men. These workmen seize 

 each seal, immediately after it is knocked down, and plunge a long knife 

 into Its heart at a point directly in the center of its chest between its 

 tore flippers; theii, with a single swift sweep of this knife, the skin of 

 the prostrate seal is cut through to the blubber in a straiglit line from 

 the rims ot the lower jaws to the fundament; another circular sweep 

 cut^ the skm right around the head so as to just leave all that forward 

 1 ^^%f^'^^ 'T^ t.l^^tip of the lower jaws; then another sweep of the 

 keen blade cuts the furred skin clear from its junction into each naked 

 lore flipper, and a final sweep separates it from the same junction with 

 Its hmd flippers and the abortive tail. This done, the work of the flij)- 

 permg-man ceases: and, he is succeeded in turn by the regular skinner 

 who steps m soon after, and quickly completes the skinning out of the 

 carcass, as was done in 1872 and described above. 



The wooden clubs and steel knives are not essentially different 

 to-day from those used in 1872: and, the treatment of the skins not 

 materia ly changed m the salt houses; only they are cured more rap- 

 dly: salted over, and changed five days after first salting, into a fresh 

 kench whei^ they he ready for final binding in ten or twelve days' 

 time from date of first salting. I say five days after first sal ing 

 because it is done as soon as that, if possible, though it is not essen^ 

 tial-ten days often elapses. This resalting is necessary to insure a 

 complet e cunng o^ the edge^ the pelts. If it is not done, Then a 



'This tail of the fur seal is just a suggestion of the article and that is~an TT^wn^ 



rrfo? n^TtTtir *'° ^^-^^ f ^^ ^^"^ ^^:'''}^^ iz^. ^::^ 



moor fof r.^/;,w ^""^^ ""^'P^r ^% "^« ^'^"^e^ Singular that none of the chanoeful 



Tf a laif '^Z ":' '""^ '^^'^ ^fPaWe of giving rise to%ven a tremor in its short sfump 

 ^4Lh nxny Asulf'olslf.'.lr,' ^^P'-f f ^^^' ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ a-^onnts to a mere excrescere^ 



+i,nf «f +1. 1 "'""^'^^j ""e- iue tau ot tne sea lion is equallv mconseniipntinl • 



th-Vh Vnd^Tucnrttr T'^■'\7^'\ ''''''' ^•'^"'"'^ J^«^ «-« aiir?ox'^er rS 

 T f^iU V +1 1 1, ■^*o"*^'^' fleshier than that of the fur seal. ° ' 



Indian^ril,i\ wlh "f.^^.^s here were pronounced evolutionists, as are all the many 

 apes! ""''" '"^ ''' '^'^'■* "^' «^'*^i^ «^'«^-t«^- tl^an most of the anthropoid 



