PRODUCTS. 547 



purposes and for the lubrication of machinery. The amount an- 

 nually obtained falls not far short of 90,000 tuns, with a total 

 value of $1,250,000. Next in importance are the skins, which are 

 nearly as valuable as the oil. From very ea-rly times they were 

 used for covering trunks, the manufacture of knapsacks, and for 

 many of the uses of ordinary leather. They have been exten- 

 sively employed, as indeed they are still, for the manufacture of 

 caps, gloves, shoes, and jackets. Of late many have been con- 

 verted in England into lacquered leather, which is said to be of 

 a superior quality, being beautiful and shining, and of firm text- 

 ure, and can be furnished at moderate cost. The skins differ 

 in value according to size and color, these varying, of course, 

 with the species and with the age of the animal. 



As an article of food, Seals are of the utmost importance to 

 the natives of Greenland, and the northern tribes generally, 

 they deriving from them the greater part of their subsistence. 

 They have been found likewise not unpalatable by our Arctic 

 voyagers, whose sustenance often for long periods has been 

 mainly the flesh of these animals. The Esquimaux and allied 

 tribes of the North are well known to depend upon the Seals not 

 only for their food, but for most of the materials for their boats 

 and sledges, as well as for clothing and the various implements 

 of the chase. 



In respect to the character of Seal flesh as food, and the im- 

 portance of these animals to the Esquimaux, I quote the follow- 

 ing from Dr. A. Homer, surgeon to the "Pandora", who, in 

 "Land and Water" for December 18, 1875 (p. 475), thus refers 

 to the general subject: 



"From the length of time these people have inhabited this 

 cold country, one naturally expects them to have found some 

 particular food well adapted by its nutritious and heat-giving 

 properties to supply all the wants of such a rigorous climate, 

 and such is found to be the case, for there is no food more deli- 

 cious to the tastes of the Esquimaux than the flesh of the seal, 

 and especially that of the common seal (PJioca vitulina). But 

 it is not only the human inhabitants who find it has such ex- 

 cellent qualities, but all the larger carnivora that are able to 

 prey on them. Seal's meat is so unlike the flesh to which we 

 Europeans are accustomed, that it is not surprising we should 

 have some difficulty at first in making up our minds to taste it ; 

 but when once that difficulty is overcome, every one praises its 

 flavour, tenderness, digestibility, juiciness, and decidedly warm- 



