472 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



scraping the gastric walls free of copious biliary secretions, the inevitable bunch of ascaris, &c. ; 

 she then told the boy to take hold of the duodenum end of the small intestine, and as he walked 

 away with it she rapidly cleared it of its attachments, so that it was thus uncoiled to its full length 

 of at least 60 feet; then she severed it, and then it was recoiled by the "melchiska," and laid up 

 with the other members just removed, except the skin, which she had nothing more to do with. 

 She then cut out the liver and ate several large pieces of that workhouse of the blood before 

 dropping it into the meat-pouch. She then raked up several haudfuls of the "leaf lard," or hard, 

 white fat that is found in moderate quantity around the viscera of all these pinnipeds, which she 

 also dumped into the flesh bag; she then drew her knife through the large heart, but did not 

 touch it otherwise, looking at it intently, however, as it still quivered in unison with the warm 

 flesh of the whole carcass. She and the boy then poked their fingers into the tumid lobes of the 

 immense lungs, cutting out portions of them only, which were also put into the grimy pouch afore- 

 said; then she secured the gall bladder and slipped it into a small yeast-powder tin, which was 

 produced by the urchin ; then she finished her economical dissection by cutting the sinews out of 

 the back in unbroken bulk from the cervical vertebra to the sacrum. All these were stuffed into 

 that skin bag, which she threw on her back and supporting it by a baud over her head, she trudged 

 back to the "barrabkie" from whence she sallied a short hour ago, like an old vulture to the 

 slaughter; she made the following disposition of its contents: The palms were used to sole a pair 

 of tarbosars, or native boots, of which the uppers and knee tops were made of the gullets, one 

 sea-lion gullet to each boot top ; the stomach was carefully blown up, and left to dry on the bar- 

 rabkie roof, eventually to be filled with oil rendered from sea-lion or fur-seal blubber. The small 

 intestine was carefully injected with water and cleansed, then distended with air, and pegged out 

 between two stakes, 60 feet apart, with little cross slats here and there between to keep it clear 

 of the ground. When it is thoroughly dry, it is ripped up in a straight line with its length and 

 pressed out into a broad baud of parchment gut, which she cuts up and uses in making a water- 

 proof "kamlaykie," sewing it with these sinews taken from the back. The liver, leaf-lard, and 

 lobes of the lungs were eaten without further cooking, and the little gall-bag was for some use in 

 poulticing a scrofulous sore. The mustache-bristles were a venture of the boy, who gathers all 

 that he can, then sends them to San Francisco, where they find a ready sale to the Chinese, who 

 pay about one cent apiece for them. When the natives cut up a sea-lion carcass, or one of a fur- 

 seal, on the killing-grounds for meat, they take only the hams and the loins. Later in the season 

 they eat the entire carcass, which they hang up by the hind flippers on a "laabas" by their houses 

 VALUE OF THE INTESTINES. A peculiar value is attached to the intestines of the sea-lion, 

 which, after skinning, are distended with air and allowed to dry in that shape; then they are cut 

 into ribbons and sewed strongly together into that most characteristic water-proof garment of the 

 world, known as the " kamlaika;"* which, while being fully as water-proof as India rubber, has 

 far greater strength, and is never affected by grease and oil. It is also transparent in its fitting 

 over dark clothes. The sea-lions' throats are served in a similar manner, and, when cured, are 

 made into boot-tops, which are in turn soled by the tough skin that composes the palms of this 

 animals fore flippers. 



* The Aleutian name for this garment is unpronounceable in our language, and equally so in the more flexible 

 Russian; hence the Muscovite " kamlaika," derived from the Siberian " kamliiia." This is made of tauned reindeer 

 skin, uiihaired, and smoked by larch bark until it is colored a safl'rou yellow ; and is worn over the reindeer-skin 

 undershirt, which has the hair next to the ownei's skin, and the obverse side stained red by a decoction of aider 

 bark. The "kamliiia" is closed behind and before, and a hood, fastened to the back of the neck , is drawn over I he head 

 when leaving shelter; so is the Aleutian " kamlaika," only the one of Kolyma is used to keep out piercing dry co'd, 

 while the garment of the Bering Sea is a perfect water repellant. 



