SEALING IN THE GULF OF BOTHNIA. 531 



The species chiefly hunted seems to have been the Gray Seal 

 (HaUchcerus grypus), this being the only large Seal found in 

 abundance in those waters. According to this writer the hunt- 

 ers were accustomed to make their voyages in open boats, 

 made light and strong, and about fifty feet in length. The 

 keels were shod with iron, and the boats were provided with 

 masts and sails. They were accustomed to start on their voy- 

 ages about the 25th of February, several boats usually keeping 

 in company, so that if one of them met with an accident the peo- 

 ple could be saved by the other boats. Each boat's crew, says 

 Cneiif, numbered eight persons, among whom were a captain or 

 master, a helmsman, and also, in order to have the food quickly 

 prepared, two cooks, the one to provide water, the other, wood, 

 of which they take very little, in order to keep the boat light, 

 the wood taken consisting of a single fir stick about a foot thick 

 and six feet long. Their provisions consisted chiefly of sour 

 bread, to which were added butter, cheese, smoked meat, and 

 salted fish. Brandy was also taken, but the chief drink was 

 the salt or brackish water of the gulf, with which meal was 

 commonly mixed to make it more palatable. Each man also 

 provided himself with two full suits of clothes, so that he could 

 change in case he fell through the ice, the wet clothes being 

 dried by sitting on them in the boat. The most noteworthy 

 article of clothing, says our author, is a skin of calf leather 

 with the hair turned outward. It must be made of the skin of a 

 wholly white calf, so that the Seals may not so readily distin- 

 guish the wearer from the ice. 



When the time for departure arrived they put into the boat 

 all their various implements and goods and launched it with its 

 wherry from the edge of the firm ice. If there chanced to be a 

 stretch of open water to the southward they sailed through it 

 as far as possible, for in this direction the Gray Seals were 

 most abundant. In case, however, there was new ice along the 

 edge of the old ice, they drew the boat over it, each man pull- 

 ing by a hair rope fastened to the boat, the captain holding 

 the boat straight by means of a long pole fastened across it 

 while the others drew it. This hard work they were frequently 

 obliged to perform at other times during the journey when meet- 

 ing with fields of new ice. At such times the heaviest of their 

 things, as the provisions and firewood, were left behind, but 

 never more than an eighth of a mile, when they returned for 

 them with sledges. They drew the boat no farther at one time 



