92 PUR-SEAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 



tioually rapid metamorphosis; it will, liowever, take place in every 

 instance within an liour or an honr and a half on these warm days 

 after tlie first blow is struck and the seal is quiet in death. Hence, no 

 time is lost by the prudent chief in directing the removal of the skins 

 as rapidly as the seals are knocked down, and dragged out. If it is a 

 cool day, after bleeding the first " pod " which has been prostrated in 

 the manner described, and after carefully drawing the slain from the 

 heap in which they have fallen, so that the bodies will spread over the 

 ground Just free from touching one another, the men turn to and strike 

 down another "pod," and so on until a whole thousand, or two, are laid 

 out, or the drove as corraled, is finished. The day, however, must be 

 raw and cold for this wholesale metliod. Then, after killing, they turn 

 to work and skin ; but if it is a warm day every pod is skinned as soon 

 as it is knocked down. 



The labor of skinning is exceedingly severe, and is trying even to an 

 expert, demanding long practice ere the musclesof the back and thighs 

 are so developed as to permit a man to bend <lown to and tinish well a 

 fair day's work. The knives used by the natives for skinning are ordi- 

 nary kitchen or case-handled butcher knives. They are sharpened to 

 cutting edges, as keen as razors: but, something about the skins of the 

 seal, perhaps fine, comminuted sand along the abdomen, so dulls these 

 knives as the natives work, that they are constantly obliged to whet 

 them while busy stripping the pelts. 



The body of the seal, preparatory to skinning, is rolled over and 

 balanced squarely on its back ; then the native makes a single swift cut 



through the skin down along the neck, chest, and belly, from the lower jaw 

 to the root of the tail, using for this purpose his long stabbing knife.^ 

 The fore and hind flippers are then successively lifted as the man straddles 

 the seal, and stoops down to his work over it; then a sweeping circular 

 incision is made through the skin on them, Just at the point where the 

 body fur ends. Then, seizing a flap of the hide on either one side or the 

 other of the abdomen, the man proceeds with his smaller, shorter butcher 



' When turning these stnnned and senseless carcasses the only physical danger of 

 which the sealers run theslightestrisk, durijigthe whole circnitof their work, o'ccnrs 

 thus: At this monieut the ].roue and (juivering body of the holluschickie is not 

 wholly inert, perhaps, though it is nine times out of ten : and, as the native takes 

 hold of a fore flipper to jerk the carcass over on to its hack the half-brained seal 

 arouses, snaps suddenly and viciously, often biting the hands or legs of the unwary 

 skinners, who then come leisurely and unc'onceriiedly up into the surgeon's ofitice at 

 the village for bandages, etc. A few men are bitteii every day or two, during the 

 season on the islands in this manner, but I have never learned of any serious result 

 following any case. The sealers, as might be expected, become exceedingly expert 

 in keeping their knives sharp, putting edges on them as keen as razors, and in an 

 instant detect any dullness by passing the balls of their thumbs over the suspected 

 edges to the blades. The white sealers of the Antarctic always used the orthodox 

 butchers' "steel" in sharpening their knives: but, these natives never have, and 

 probably never will abandon those little whetstones above referred to. 



During the Russian management, and throughout the strife in killing by our own 

 peoi)le m 1868, a very large number of the skins were cut through, here :'ind there, 

 by the slipping of the natives' knives when tliey were cutting them from thecarcasses 

 and "flensing" them from the superabundance, in spots, of blubber. These knife 

 cuts through the skin, no matter how slight, give great annoyance to the dresser; 

 hence they are always marked down in price. The prompt scrutiny of each skin on 

 the islands by the agent of the Alaska Commercial Company, who rejects evervone 

 of them thus injured, has caused the natives to exercise great care, and the number 

 now so damaged every season is absolutely trifling. 



Another source of small loss is due to a liabit which the holluschickie have of occa- 

 sionally l)iting one another when rhey are being urged along in the drives, and thus 

 crowded, once in awhile, one upon the other. Usuatly these examples of " zoobiiden " 

 are detected by the natives prior to the "knocking down," and spared. Vet those 

 which have been nipped on the chest or abdomen can not be thus noticed, and until 

 the skiu is lifted the damage is not apprehon ded. 



