482 HISTOEY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



the northwest. The oil spread from the hold into the cabin and forecastle, floating over every- 

 thing and forcing the crew to remain on the deck. They got up some bags of bread, and by put- 

 ting a pump down through the oil into the water casks they managed to get fresh water. After 

 being in this state some days, he and his crew were taken out of the vessel by a ship they 

 luckily fell in with, and carried to St. Johns, New Brunswick; but his own vessel, with her 

 once valuable cargo, and almost all the valuable property of himself and his crew, were necessarily 

 abandoned to the mercy of the wind and waves, and what became of her was never known. This 

 was a good practical lesson as to the proper method of stowing a cargo of seals, and one not likely 

 to be forgotten. In the present instance, therefore, the pounds were both numerous and strong.'* 



"In a few days more they completed their cargo and returned to St. John's with the ves- 

 sel loaded with between 4,000 and 5,000 seals. ' It was a very good season,' Professor Jukes further 

 remarks; 'one vessel in two trips brought in 11,000 seals, and the total take this year [1840] 

 must have been considerably upward of 500,000.' 



" Mr. Keebs states that in 1866 one vessel, which made two successful trips to the ice, brought 

 into St. John's Harbor 25,000 seals."! 



"To complete the picture here partially drawn of the seal-fishery as pursued by the Newfound- 

 land seal hunters, I quote still further from the same author, respecting the scenes incident to a 

 sealing voyage of forty years ago. Under date of March 5 Mr. Jukes writes: 'This morning was 

 dark and foggy, with the wind at southeast. At 7 o'clock, after making a tack or two about 

 an open lake and finding no channel, we dashed into the ice with all sails set, in company with two 

 other vessels, on a north-northwest course. The ice soon got firmer, thicker, and heavier, and we 

 shortly stuck fast. "Overboard with you, gaffs and pokers," sang out the captain, and over went, 

 accordingly, the major part of the crew to the ice. The pokers were large poles of light wood, 6 or 

 8 inches in circumference and 12 or 15 feet long. Pounding with these, or hewing the ice with 

 axes, the men would split the pans near the bows of the vessel, and then, inserting the ends of the 

 pokers, use them as large levers, lifting up one side of the broken piece and depressing the other, 

 and several getting round with their gaffs, they shoved it by main force under the adjoining ice- 

 Smashing, breaking, and pounding the smaller pieces in the course the vessel wished to take, room 

 was afforded for the motion of the larger pans. Laying out great claws on the ice ahead when the 

 wind was light, the crew warped the vessel on. If a large, strong pan was met with, the ice-saw 

 was got out. Sometimes a crowd of men, clinging round the ship's bows, and holding on to the 

 bights of rope suspended there for the purpose, would jump and dance on the ice, bending and 

 breaking it with their weight, shoving it below the vessel, and dragging her on over it with all 

 their force. Up to their knees in water, as one piece after another sank below the cut-water they 

 still held on, hurrahing at every fresh start she made, dancing, jumping, pushing, shoving, haul- 

 ing, hewing, sawing, till every soul on board was roused into excited exertion. They continued 

 these exertions the whole day, relieved occasionally by small open pools of water, and in the even- 

 ing we calculated that we had been 15 miles. It continued foggy all day. and at night it began to 

 rain. We had seen no vessel since morning nothing but a dreary expanse of ice and snow, stretch- 

 ing away into the misty horizon. The next day the wind was from the west, and the sky fine and 

 clear. Several vessels were near us, and several more on the horizon ; the ice became thicker, 

 stronger, and more compact. We made a few miles in the morning, and stuck fast the rest of the 

 day in a very large pan or field of ice, sawing, axing, prising, warping, &<., aa yesterday.'} 



" 'Excursions in Newfoundland, vol. 1, pp. 272-280." 

 "t Zoologist, 2d ser., vol. vi, 1871, p. 2548." 

 "(Excursions in Newfoundland, vol. 1, pp. 261-263." 



