162 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



work in pairs, one man shooting the seals, and his 

 chum, who is called "the dog," following up, cutting 

 off the tail from the dead seal to "mark it," and then 

 gathering them in heaps, and putting up a pole with 

 a flag or a piece of liver as a claim. These are 

 then said to be "panned." This is technically called 

 "swatching." When shooting, 1,400 seals in a day 

 is good work for a crew, though they have killed 

 3,000; but when it is only necessary to "club" them 

 with the seal-bat, 25,000 have been killed in a day, 

 and 47,000 in two days. Sculping (scalping?) is 

 the next process that is taking off the skin and 

 fat. This scarcely takes a minute. The seal is 

 thrown on its back, ripped up from chin to tail, 

 , and the fat and skin, known as the "pelt," are torn 

 off. The body is no use, and is left on the ice, 

 except that occasionally the hearts are cut out and 

 strung on the hunter's belts, as a reserve of food 

 in case of necessity. 



The mother seals show great sagacity in finding 

 the particular hole, through which she comes and 

 goes for food, among so many thousand others, and 

 at once she finds her own little white pup. They 

 will evince much self-sacrifice in trying to rescue 

 their offspring from danger, at times carrying them 

 in their fore flippers to escape being nipped by ice, 

 or drawing them into the water to teach them to 

 swim. Alas, after a sealer's visit she will only find 

 a quivering red corpse when she returns. Let us 

 hope she does not recognise it. 



