SEALING. 149 



A large number of seals are also captured in nets, this method 

 being chiefly employed during the spring and autumn visits of the 

 migratory species to the shore. Nets appear to have been in use longest in the 

 Gulf of Bothnia, the Caspian Sea, and Lake Baikal, where they are set either from 

 the shore or beneath the ice. In the Gulf of Bothnia such nets are from 60 to 

 90 feet in length, and about 6 feet in depth. Two of them are generally set 

 together in the neighbourhood of rocks to which the seals resort, and are always 

 placed to the leeward of the mainland or some headland. When they strike 

 against the nets, the seals thrust their heads through some of the meshes, and by 

 twisting themselves about gradually become completely involved. In the Caspian 

 Sea the nets are usually hung from boats at a considerable distance from the 

 shore. In Lake Baikal, on the other hand, the nets are let down through the 

 breathing-holes of the seals in the ice, and the animals become entangled on 

 rising. 



The seal-box used in parts of Scandinavia is a contrivance with 

 a swinging plank, upon which, when the seal lands, it is precipitated 

 headlong into a deep pit. Another Scandinavian plan is to surround a seal-rock 

 with a line armed with a number of barbed hooks. These hooks allow the seals to 

 land with impunity ; but when a number of the animals are on the rock, and 

 through a sudden fright rush headlong into the water, some of them are pretty 

 sure to be caught. A third method employed in the same country is to fix a 

 harpoon in a tube, with a spring-and-trigger arrangement, and to bury the whole 

 contrivance in a hole bored in a seal-rock in such a manner that when a seal 

 presses against the trigger the weapon will be discharged into its body. 



A large number of seals are also shot on the shore with rifles ; and others fall 

 to the harpoon of the Eskimo, who either steals up to them while asleep, or awaits 

 their rising at a breathing-hole. When a large number of seals can be surprised 

 on shore at one of their favourite landing-places, clubbing is resorted to as the 

 most effectual and speedy means of despatch ; and it is said that sometimes as 

 many as 15,000 have been killed in this manner in one night. 

 Capture on ice- The above methods apply only to sealing on or near the shore ; 



Floes. b u t f or the capture of seals on the ice-floes at long distances from 



land, vessels of some kind have to be specially equipped. In the Gulf of Bothnia 



these expeditions are or were carried out in open boats, each manned by eight 



sailors ; but in the Newfoundland and Jan-Mayen seas steamers of considerable 



size are now employed. When the seals are found on the ice, they are killed in 



the same way as on shore, that is, either by shooting, harpooning, or clubbing. 



The most valuable product of the sealing industry is the oil, 

 Products. 1 .,..,. 



which is used both for lighting and for lubricating machinery. 



Writing in 1880 Mr. J. A. Allen states that the total annual quantity of seal-oil 

 then obtained reached close on 90,000 barrels. Next in value to the oil are the 

 skins, which are manufactured into leather of various sorts ; a large number being 

 used for lacquered leather. To the northern tribes seals are all important, furnish- 

 ing not only the greater part of their food, but likewise most of the materials from 

 which their boats and sledges are made, as well as their clothes and their hunting 

 implements. 



