90 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



two skins placed flesh to flesh, with a small quantity of salt between to keep the skins 

 moist and pliable. Much of the salt now in the bins or kenches has been in use so long 

 that it has become so coated with dirt and grease that its solubility and consequent cur- 

 ing power is considerably lessened. Unless this old salt can be freed from the foreign 

 matter which accompanies it, much of it should be thrown away. It is believed also 

 that the substitution of a finer grade of salt, which would be more easily soluble, might 

 have advantages. It may be possible to cleanse and reduce to finer grains some of the 

 salt now on hand. This amounts to many tons, and by utilizing the native force, the 

 expense and trouble of actually replacing it may be avoided. 



NEED OF COMPETENT SUPERVISION. 



It is evident to any one who has observed a gang of the natives at work that they 

 need constant and intelligent supervision. Left to themselves they are rather careless 

 and indifferent. This is in part due to their natural lack of care for detail, and partly 

 to the fact that they have fallen behind in efficiency because of the decline in the amount 

 of sealing. It was noticed that in making drives they allowed the seals to travel in 

 too large bunches, resulting in an excessive amount of trampling. This fact being 

 recognized, a drive made under special direction was managed differently. The seals 

 were drawn out into a long line, only a few abreast, and a much longer drive than usual 

 was made with decidedly less distress and, according to the natives, in the quickest time 

 on record. In some of the illustrations of driving as practiced during the days of exten- 

 sive killing, the seals are represented as being driven in this way, and it is probable that 

 the carelessness observed in 191 4 represents merely a lapse from a method formerly 

 recognized as efficient and proper. 



MEASUREMENTS VERSUS WEIGHTS. 



It has long been the custom in selecting seals of the proper age for killing, to rely 

 on the weight of the skins as a criterion. Those below a certain weight were considered 

 2-year-olds; those above this weight and below another higher weight were considered 

 3-year-olds, and so on. The uncertainty of this method, and the impossibility of con- 

 fining the killing strictly to certain ages by its application has been amply demonstrated. 

 Measuring the skins also has been found to be very unreliable because of the extreme 

 flexibility of fresh skins. The large amount of variability in the weight and measure- 

 ments both before and after salting has been demonstrated repeatedly. The fact that 

 neither the weight nor the measurements of a skin can be taken until it is removed and 

 all connection in the minds of the sealers between a particular skin and the seal from 

 whose body it was taken is necessarily lost, must always remain an insuperable argument 

 against its practicability. It should be stated, moreover, that the confinement of 

 killing to particular classes of seals in the past has been due more to the judgment of the 

 clubbers than to the system of weighing skins. 



Under complete Government control there can be no temptation to take animals 

 below the prescribed age, and the time-consuming system of individual weighing should 

 be abandoned. Notes made in 191 4 show that the process of weighing 100 skins takes 

 two men about one hour. As before stated, this necessarily has to be done at a time 

 when every consideration of economy demands that the skins on hand be placed in 

 the salt as quickly as possible, and thus it interferes greatly with the proper utilization 

 of the services of the working force. 



