SEAL-HUNTING CASPIAN SEA. 513 



The more hardened and expert a huntsman is, the larger is his 

 share. Every society of twenty huntsmen elects a ' starosta,' 

 (the old one,) whose duty it is to guard the coast and prepare 

 the food, without receiving for this a larger share than the other 

 huntsmen. 



" On the western coast of the White Sea, (called the Terski 

 coast,) the phocse-chase is not as productive as on the eastern 

 coast, because the pieces of ice, driven toward the north, float 

 along the shore. Scarcely more than 15,000 ' pouds ' (540,000 

 pounds) of phocse are caught there every year. 



"In these latitudes, the principal meeting-place of the hunts- 

 men is sixteen 'versts' (about nine miles) north of the river 

 Ponoi, and is called Deviataya. Huts are built here, and about 

 five hundred huntsmen assemble, who form themselves into socie- 

 ties. Every society is composed of a master and three hunts- 

 men. While one of the members of the society remains on 

 shore with his sleigh and his reindeer, the other three venture 

 on the pieces of ice to discover the phocae, which are sleeping 

 there. Every huntsman wears over his clothes a short cloak 

 of reindeer skin, called ' sovik,' and has on his feet large boots 

 lined with fur. At the end of a long strap passed over his 

 shoulder he draws a small boat, Aveighing 20 kilograms. A 

 game-bag with provisions is attached to his belt. His gun on 

 his shoulder, and having in his hand a long stick, with an iron 

 point, he rapidly and skillfully advances, by means of his snow- 

 shoes, over the vast fields of snow and ice. He acts as guide, 

 and his two comrades follow him in single file, drawing their 

 boat after them. When they have arrived at an expanse of 

 water where phocae are swimming, two of the huntsmen fire, 

 while the third pushes the boat into the water in order to take 

 up the dead animals, which he hoists into the boat by means of 

 a boat-hook. 



" The chase commences early in the morning, and the hunts- 

 men do not return to their hut till evening ; a flag hoisted on 

 the shore indicating to them its position." 



6. Caspian Sea. Strange as it may seem, tfie Caspian Sea, 

 an inland brackish lake, with no natural communication with the 

 oceans, and quite far removed from any other considerable body 

 of water is the seat of a sealing industry only second in im- 

 portance to that of the so-called "Greenland" or Jan Mayen 

 Seas. Many more Seals are taken here than Dr. Rink reports 

 the annual catch to be in Greenland, and the number is rather 

 Misc. Pub. ^o. 12 33 



