SKINNING THE SEAL. 279 



his jacket ; so bear a hand, and let's set to work to 

 skin him." Accordingly we bore him in triumph 

 to where there was a ring in the wall, which no 

 doubt had some time been used for hanging a horse's 

 bridle to, or some such purpose ; and having tied a 

 strong cord round his neck and passed another 

 under his flippers, there he was SMS. per col., and 

 ready to be operated upon. " Now, boys, who's 

 going to skin him ? " said I ; but, to my surprise, 

 no one volunteered. " Why, he's worth the trouble," 

 I said, " if it's only for the oil that's in him ; " still 

 there was no candidate for the honour. I found 

 afterwards that there was some superstition about 

 a seal, and that some tradition made out that 

 the souls of old grandmothers, or some sort of 

 old hag, inhabited their bodies after death. Be this 

 as it may, no one seemed willing to skin the sale. 

 Accordingly I blessed them all round, turned up my 

 coat-sleeves, and having pulled out of my pocket 

 a likely-looking, long-bladed, buck-horn deer-killing 

 kind of knife, set to work. But, oh my ! was he 

 not full of grease! It soon saturated my shirt-cuffs, 

 so I took off my coat, and turned up my shirt-sleeves 

 above my elbows, But no ! this would not do ; it 

 ran past my elbows and up my arms, till I could 



