430 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



As soon as possible after the auiuial is killed it is skinned. This work is done on shore, and 

 the method now employed in stripping the seal is to make a cut with a sharp knife through the 

 skin around the throat just above the ears, leaving those appendages on the pelt, then down the 

 chest and belly to the extreme lower part, then cut around the flippers. The skin is now cut free 

 from the body and is prepared for salting or drying, while the carcass is left on the rocks to be 

 devoured by birds. 



Prior to 1815, about the only market for the sale of the skins was China, where they were 

 exchanged for tea and other commodities. They were mostly dressed in the same manner as hair 

 seal, for the hide. The fur was cut off clean and thrown away as useless, and the hides were used 

 in the manufacture of trunks, valises, &c. 



From 1820 to 1840 the fur-seal skin was taken from the animal in the same manner as a calf or 

 sheep is skinned, leaving the pelt with about one-fourth of an inch of blubber still adhering to it. 

 Since 1840 they have been skinned so as to leave nearly all the blubber on, but when deposited at 

 camp or on board the vessel they are placed upon aboard about 16 inches wide, or upon an empty 

 barrel, and beamed by cutting all the blubber from the pelt. They are then washed or soaked 

 from blood and dirt, and are pressed for a day or two by putting in piles, thus removing the water. 

 They are then freely salted and tied up in bundles in book form ; sometimes booked snug with 

 salt and tied ; sometimes loosely booked and put in bins or packed ; and sometimes packed in 

 kench after having been resalted, skins to fur, with salt between, in casks. After this has been 

 done they will require resalting within four months and looking after before passing the warm 

 latitude. Slack salting and want of proper care will bring ruin to the fur or pelt by heating and 

 causing the fur to come out wherever the skin is not completely cured or salted. It is not con- 

 sidered safe, even after a pelt is no longer capable of absorbing salt, to have them packed in piles 

 for over four months without overhauling, as they are liable to become heated. 



The skins were invariably dried before the year 1815, since which time they have always been 

 salted, except in exceptional cases, when a few have been taken by natives, or where the stock of 

 salt on the vessel has been exhausted. The proportion dried under these circumstances would 

 not be more than 1 per cent, of the number of skins brought to market. 



Sealers now beam down close and clean. At the same time if one-fourth of an inch of meat 

 is left on the pelt it is safer, for the meat takes the salt better than the pelt, and the skin is thus 

 "cured to greater safety." 



The skins are ready to pass into the hold of the vessel as soon as washed and drained of water, 

 when they may be salted and packed, as before described. 



CAPTAIN ATHEARN'S ACCOUNT OF FUR-SEAL HUNTING. 



The following letter of advice was written a few years ago by Capt. George F. Athearn, of 

 West Tisbury, Mass., to Capt. Thomas Warren, who was about to start on a fur-seal voyage to 

 the Bounty Rocks. 



Through the kindness of Captain Athearn we are permitted to publish this letter which 

 contains very valuable information concerning the habits of the Antarctic fur seal, the methods 

 employed for its capture, and the care of the skins : 



" I will now write what I should do if I was going on a sealing voyage such as you are now 

 about to start on. First, I should use every reasonable means of making the best of my way to the 

 seal islands. I have always found it best to be on hand and in season, so as to have some lee- 

 way for bad weather. The great trouble in working fur-seal islands and rocks is in landing the 

 salt and provisions. There is not much trouble in taking off skins, for they can betaken off with 

 ease when you could not laud a thing. 



