534 FAMILY 



which these poor people are exposed to fierce cold and severe 

 snow-storms, under the open sky, they having no protection save 

 that afforded by the sails of their boat, under which they lie, 

 for it appears that they have not even the comforts of a fire. 

 These perilous journeys occupy commonly two or three months, 

 and sometimes more, according to their success in hunting, 

 remaining out later when they have a long search in finding the 

 Seals, or are late in obtaining a full cargo. Sometimes, how- 

 ever, when very fortunate, the voyage would be completed in 

 five weeks. In case they meet with an abundance of Seals they 

 save only the skin and fat, throwing away the flesh. On their 

 return the products of the voyage are divided equally among 

 the different boats. 



It would seem that such exposure and risk would only be un- 

 dertaken under the incentive of large profits, but on the con- 

 trary, after deducting the cost of each man's outfit, and the 

 value of his time if devoted to other pursuits, little is really 

 gained by these arduous and dangerous voyages. 



Later in the season (about the end of March) they were ac- 

 customed to make a second voyage, this time for the Wikare or 

 Bay Seal (apparently Phoca vitulina), for this purpose proceeding 

 northward, with much the same outfit, and in nearly the same 

 manner as on the earlier voyage. These later voyages seem to 

 have been equally beset with danger, fifteen boats, as Cneiff 

 tells us, being lost at one time.* 



2. Off the coast of Newfoundland. The season for ' ' ice-hunting n 

 begins at the Newfoundland " sealing-grounds " about the first 

 of March and continues for about two months. The Seals are 

 then on the ice-floes at a considerable distance from land, often 

 several hundred miles. The same vessel, however, sometimes 

 makes two, and on rare occasions three, voyages during the 

 season. Formerly (fifty years ago) vessels engaged in sealing 

 rarely left port before March 17, but more recently have sailed 

 by the first of that month; and sometimes during the last days 

 of February. This, Mr. Carroll claims, is too early, and tends 



* Abridged from Cneiff's "Bericht vom Seekiilberfarge in Ostbothnien." 

 Abhandl. der Kongl. Schwed. Akad. der Wissensch. 19 Band, 1759, pp. 174- 

 183. Lloyd, in his " Game Birds and Wild Fowl of Sweden and Norway" 

 (pp. 433-449) gives a very similar account of what purports to be a history 

 of Seal-hunting in the Gulf of Bothnia in recent times (1866), but his ac- 

 count is little more than a paraphrase of the foregoing, although Cneiff is not 

 cited in this connection. Here and there additional details are given, but 

 in the main Lloyd's account is substantially the same as Cneiff's. 



