452 OILS 



5,000 and 6,000, and some -with as many as 7,000, 8,000, and 9,000. Seals were 

 formerly sold by tale ; they are now all sold by weight that is, so much per cwt. for 

 fat and skin. 



The principal species captured are the hood and harp seal. The bulk of the catch 

 consists of the young hood and harp in nearly equal proportions. The best and most 

 productive seal taken is the young harp. There are general!)' four different qualities 

 in a cargo of seals, namely the young harp, young hood, old harp and bedlamer 

 (the latter is the year-old hood), and the old hood. There is a difference of 2s. per 

 cwt. in the value of each denomination. 



The first operation after landing and weighing is the skinning, or separating the 

 fat from the skin ; this is speedily done, for an expert skinner will skin from 300 to 

 400 young pelts in a day. After being dry-salted in bulk for about a month, the 

 skins are sufficiently cured for shipment, the chief market for them being Great 

 Britain. The fat is then cut up, and put into the seal-vats. 



The seal-vat consists of what are termed the crib and pan. The crib is a strong 

 wooden erection, from 20 to 30 feet square, and 20 to 25 feet in height. It is firmly 

 secured with iron clamps, and the interstices between the upright posts are filled in 

 with small round poles. It has a strong timber floor, capable of sustaining 300 or 

 400 tons. The crib stands in a strong wooden pan, 3 or 4 feet larger than the square 

 of the crib, so as to catch all the drippings. The pan is about 3 feet deep, and tightly 

 caulked. A small quantity of water is kept on the bottom of the pan, for the double 

 purpose of saving the oil in case of a leak, and for purifying it from the blood and any 

 other animal matter of superior gravity. The oit made by this process is all cold- 

 drawn : no artificial heat is applied in any way, which accounts for the unpleasant 

 smell of seal oil. When the vats begin to run, the oil drops from the crib upon the 

 water in the pan ; and as it accumulates it is casked off, and ready for shipment. The 

 first running, which is caused by compression from its own weight, begins about the 

 1 Oth of May, and will continue to yield what is termed pale seal oil, from two to three 

 months, until from 50 to 70 per cent, of the quantity is drawn off, according to the 

 season, or in proportion to the quantity of old seal fat being pot into the vats. From 

 being tougher, this is not acted upon by compression, nor does it yield its oil until 

 decomposition takes place ; and hence it does not, by this process, produce pale seal 

 oil. The first drawings from the vats are much freer from smell than the latter. As 

 decomposition takes place, the colour changes to straw, becoming every day, as the 

 season advances, darker and darker, and stinking worse and worse, until it finally runs 

 brown oil. As this running slackens, it then becomes necessary to turn over what 

 remains in the vats. The crib being generally divided into nine apartments or pounds, 

 this operation is performed by first emptying one of the pounds, and dispersing the 

 contents over the others, and then filling and emptying them alternately, until the 

 entire residue, by this time a complete mass of putrefaction, is turned over. By this 

 process a 'further running of brown oil is obtained. The remains are then finally 

 boiled out in large iron pots, which, during the whole season, are kept in pretty 

 constant requisition for boiling out the cuttings and clippings of the skinning and 

 other parts of the pelts, which it is not found advisable to put into the vats. The 

 produce of this, and the remains of the vats, are what is termed the ' boiled seal oil.' 

 These operations occupy about six months, and terminate towards the end of 

 September. 



During the months of July, August, and September, the smell and effluvia from the 

 vats and boiling operation are almost insufferable. The healthy situation of St. John's, 

 from its proximity to the sea and the high and frequent local winds, is doubtless the 

 cause of preventing much sickness at this season of the year. The men more imme- 

 diately employed about the seal-vats have a healthy and vigorous appearance. 



Some improvement has taken place since the great fire of 1846, when all the seal- 

 vats in the town were destroyed. Many of the manufacturers have erected their new 

 vats on the south or opposite side of the harbour ; but there still remain sufficient 

 vestiges of the seal trade to cause a summer residence in the town of St. John's any- 

 thing but desirable. Even the country for several miles around St. Jphn's affords no 

 protection from these horrible stenches. The animal remains from the vats, and the 

 offal from the cod-fish are found to be such a valuable manure, that they are readily 

 purchased by the farmers in the neighbourhood ; and from whatever quarter the wind 

 blows, the pedestrian in his rural walk has little chance of breathing a genial atmo- 

 sphere. 



Mr. S. G. Archibald directed his attention to some mode of improving the manufac- 

 ture of the seal oil. The result of several experiments upon the different qualities of 

 seal's fat satisfied him that the whole produce of the fishery, if taken while the 

 material is fresh, as it generally arrives in the market, and subjected to a process of 

 artificial heat, was capable of yielding, not only a uniform quality of oil, but *ihe oil 



