248 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



For hunting an old whale-catcher is used, the crew being Norwegian and Russian. 

 She visits the various beaches and anchors off them as near the shore as possible, and 

 sends ashore a "pram" with the hunters (Plate XIX, fig. i). The selected seal are 

 driven down to the water's edge and there shot by rifle. The killing shots are the back 

 of the head, or, if the seal stops to roar, as he frequently does, up through the palate 

 into the brain while the mouth is widely open. When the seal is killed the iris of the 

 eye relaxes so that the retina throws a green reflection. This fact was noted by Pernety 

 in 1764, who says: "I remarked that when they were expiring their eyes changed 

 colour, and their crystaUine lens became of an admirable green". As the elephant seal, 

 like all seals, is very tenacious of life, the sealers sever the carotids by gashing the side 

 of the neck after the seal have been knocked down by the rifle shot. The quantity of 

 blood that runs from a large elephant seal is very great, a fact which much impressed 

 the early voyagers. The blubber is flensed off with the hide by cutting through it 

 along each side just above the ground as the seal lies on his belly. These two cuts are 

 joined by cuts across the head, and across the hind part of the body at the base of the 

 hind flippers. A median cut is then made down the back, dividing the dorsal blubber 

 into two equal parts. These are again divided by vertical cuts at the middle length of 

 the body, and the four resulting flaps of blubber are quickly dissected off (Plate XXIV, 

 fig. 3). The carcass is then rolled over on to its back and four similar pieces are flensed 

 off the under surface. Long pointed knives are used for flensing: they are carried in 

 locally made wooden sheaths hung from the belt and are kept very sharp by frequent 

 application of the steel. The sealers take hold of the blubber by steel hooks similar to 

 the stevedore's "cargo hooks". As the pieces of blubber are flensed off a cut is made 

 in them so that they can be threaded on a rope, and then they are dragged into heaps 

 at the water's edge. Whilst the killing and flensing are going on, the pram returns to 

 the ship, and coils down a long rope, one end of which is made fast on board, whilst 

 the other end is brought ashore, the coil in the pram being payed out the while. To 

 the shore end of the rope a wire is made fast, having a number of smaller wires, each 

 about a fathom long and ending in a wooden toggle, spliced into it at intervals. The 

 toggles and wires are threaded through the pieces of blubber, which have cuts in them 

 for the purpose, and when the wire is loaded the signal is given, and the rope is hove 

 in to the ship by the steam winch, bringing with it the wire and its load of blubber. 

 The flensed carcasses are left to rot on the beach and are soon reduced to clean picked 

 skeletons by the birds, especially Giant Petrels, Gulls, Skuas and Sheathbills. 



The shore gang return to the ship while the blubber is being hove on board and 

 put in the hold; then the anchor is weighed and the next beach is visited. As the hold- 

 space is not large on the whale-catchers the after rail is built in with planks and corru- 

 gated iron sheeting and a deck cargo is carried there as well. The blubber is brought 

 back to the whaling station and is there minced and boiled out. During the best part 

 of the season, given good weather, each whale-catcher employed brings in a full cargo, 

 the blubber of a hundred to a hundred and thirty seals, every three days; but bad 

 weather often delays them so that they cannot get home for a week or more. 



