480 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



" The voyages are attended with much danger, great hardships, and uncertainty of results, a 

 ' good rip' being entirely a matter of chance. Not unfrequently the vessels become 'jammed in 

 the ice,' and if not crushed in the pack-ice may be detained for weeks before being able to force 

 their way to the ice-floes, which form at this season the grand rendezvous of the seals. The inci- 

 dents and dangers ordinarily attending a sealing voyage, as well as the manner of capturing and 

 disposing of the seals, have been so graphically set forth by Professor Jukes in his entertaining and 

 instructive work entitled ' Excursions in Newfoundland,' that I transcribe in this connection por- 

 tions of his account of a sealing cruise participated in by him in March, 1840, in the brigantine 

 Topaz, Captain Furneaux, of St. John's, Newfoundland. Having, after a week's arduous cruise, 

 fallen in with the seals and captured a few young ones, he says : ' We soon afterwards passed 

 through some loose ice, on which the young seals were scattered, and nearly all hands were over- 

 board, slaying, skinning, and hauling. We then got into another lake of water and sent out five 

 punts. The crews of these joined those already on the ice, and dragging either the whole seals or 

 their pelts to the edge of the water, collected them in the punts, and when one of these was full 

 brought them on board. The cook of the vessel, and my man Simon, with the captain and myself, 

 managed the vessel, circumnavigating the lake and picking up the boats as they put off one after 

 another from the edge of the ice. In this way, when it became too dark to do any more, we found 

 we had got 300 seals on board, and the deck was one great shamble. When piled in a heap 

 together the young seals looked like so many lambs, and when occasionally from out of the bloody 

 and dirty mass of carcasses one poor wretch, still alive, would lift up its face and begin to flounder 

 about, I could stand it no longer; and, arming myself with a handspike, I proceeded to knock on 

 the head and put out of misery all in whom I saw signs of life. After dark we left the lake and 

 got jammed in a field of ice, with the wind blowing strong from the northwest. The watch was 

 employed in skinning those seals which were brought on board whole, and throwing away the 

 carcass. In skinning, a cut is made through the fat to the flesh, a thickness generally of about 3 

 inches, along the whole length of the belly, from the throat to the tail. The legs, or flippers, and 

 also the head, are then drawn out from the inside and the skin is laid out flat and entire, with the 

 layer of fat or blubber firmly adhering to it, and the skin in this state is called the "pelt," and some- 

 times the "sculp." It is generally about 3 feet long and 2J wide, and weighs from 30 to 50 pounds. 

 The carcass when turned out of its warm covering is light and slim, and, except such parts as are 

 preserved for eating, is thrown a,way. 



" ; The next day,' continues Mr. Jukes, 'as soon as it was light, all hands were overboard on 

 the ice, and the whole of the day was employed in slaughtering young seals in all directions and 

 hauling their pelts to the vessel. The day [March 13] was clear and cold, with a strong northwest 

 wind blowing, and occasionally the vessel made good way through the ice, the men following her 

 and clearing off the seals on each side as we went along. The young seals lie dispersed here and 

 there on the ice, basking in the sun, and often sheltered by the rough blocks and piles of ice, cov- 

 ered with snow. Six or eight may sometimes be seen within a space of 20 yards square. The 

 men, armed with a gaff and a hauling rope slung over their shoulders, disperse about on the ice, 

 and whenever they find a seal strike it a heavy blow in the head, which either stuns the animal 

 or kills it outright. Having killed or t least stunned all they see within a short distance, they 

 skin, or, as they call it, sculp them with a broad clasp knife, called a sculping-knife, and making 

 two holes along the edge of each side of the skin they lay them one over another, passing the rope 

 through the nose of each pelt and lacing it through the side holes in such a manner that when 

 pulled taut it draws them into a compact bundle. Fastening the gaff in this bundle, they then 

 put the rope over the shoulder and haul it away over the ice to the vessel. In this way they bring 



