16 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



all the men, with boats and gear, are waiting on 

 shore in the greatest anxiety to be " up and at the 

 fish." The caplin are sometimes smoked and kept 

 for food, but usually are dried on the rocks for dog 

 food in winter. Messrs. Munn, ot Harbour Grace, 

 have tinned them like sardines, and they are then 

 excellent eating. The sea also affords "hair" seals; 

 these are caught in nets in the fall of the year, or 

 are shot swimming in the bays in summer time. 

 Whales are common on the coast, but the people 

 now have no means of taking them. I saw two 

 small right-whales which had been washed up on 

 the beach, and also one very large sperm whale. 

 Fourteen hundred gallons of oil was taken from his 

 head. So long ago as the I5th century, before the 

 discovery of America, Basque whalers are said to 

 have fished these waters. In the far north, at Un- 

 gava, the Hudson's Bay people make a regular 

 attempt to intercept the large schools of porpoises. 

 At times they will get as many as 150, some in- 

 dividuals weighing a ton each. They are used for 

 their skin and fat, and their flesh for dog food. 

 This is put raw into old flour barrels, and then 

 buried in the ground, usually in June, and in 

 October it will be dug up again. Decomposition 

 will have made the flesh swell up, and the barrels 

 will have burst. As, however, the whole is now 

 frozen, the wood can be removed, and the barrel- 

 shaped masses of frozen and unsavoury flesh are 

 stored away for the dogs' repasts. 



