AMPHIBIAN MILLIONS. 339 



bands. Each native also has his stabbing-knife, his skimmig-knife 

 and his whetstone : these are laid upon the grass convenient, when 

 the work of braining or knocking the seals down is in progress : 

 this is all the apparatus which they employ for killing and skinning. 



When the men gather for work they are under the control of 

 their chosen foremen or chiefs ; usually, on St. Paul, divided into 

 two working parties at the village, and a sub-party at North- 

 east Point, where another salt-house and slaughtering-field is 

 established. At the signal of the chief the labor of the day begins 

 by the men stepping into that drove corralled on the flats and driv- 

 ing out from it one hundred or one hundred and fifty seals at a 

 time, making what they call a "pod," which they surround in a 

 circle, huddling the seals one on another as they narrow it down, until 

 they are directly within reach and under their clubs. Then the chief, 

 after he has cast his experienced eye over the struggling, writhing 

 " kautickie " in the centre, passes the word that such and such a 

 seal is bitten, that such and such a seal is too young, that such and 

 such a seal is too old ; the attention of his men being called to 

 these points, he gives the word " Strike ! " and instantly the heavy 

 clubs come down all around, and every animal eligible is stretched 

 out stunned and motionless, in less time, really, than I take to tell 

 it. Those seals spared by order of the chief now struggle from 

 under and over the bodies of their insensible companions and pass, 

 hustled off by the natives, back to the sea. 



The clubs are dropped, the men seize the prostrate seals by the 

 hind flippers and drag them out so they are spread on the ground 

 without touching each other, then every sealer takes his knife and 

 drives it into the heart at a point between the fore flippers of each 

 stunned form ; its blood gushes forth, and the quivering of the 

 animal presently ceases. A single stroke of a heavy oak bludgeon, 

 well and fairly delivered, will crush in at once the slight, thin bones 

 of a fur-seal's skull, and lay the creature out almost lifeless. These 

 blows are, however, usually repeated two or three times with each 

 animal, but they are very quickly done. The bleeding, which is 

 immediately effected, is so speedily undertaken in order that the 

 strange reaction, which the sealers call " heating," shall be delayed 

 for hah* -an hour or so, or until the seals can all be drawn out and 

 laid in some disposition for skinning. 



I have noticed that within less than thirty minutes from the 

 time a perfectly sound seal was knocked down, it had so " heated," 



