2546 The Zoologist — April, 1871. 



a half wide, and weighs from thirty to fifty 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 away. 



" March I3lh. As soon as it was light this morning 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. Tiie day was clear and cold, with a strong N.W. 

 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, covered with snow. Six or eight 

 may sometimes be seen within a space of twenty 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 on the head, which cither stuns the animal 

 or kills it outright. Having killed, or at least stunned, all they see 

 within a short distance, they skin, or as they call it, 'sculp' thera 

 with a broad clasp-knife,* called a sculpiug-knile, and nicking 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 

 light 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 in bundles 

 of pells, three, six or even seven at a time, and sometimes from a 

 distance of two miles. Six pells, hovever, is reckoned a very heavy 

 load to drag over the rough and broken ice, leaping from pan to 

 pan, and they generally contrive to keep two or three together to 

 assist each other at the bad places, or to pull those out who fall 

 into the water. The ice to-day was in places very slippery and in 

 others broken and treacherous, and as 1 had not got my boots 

 properly filled with 'sparables' and 'chisels' I stayed on board 

 and helped the captain and the cook in managing the vessel and 

 whipping in the pelts as they were brought alongside. By twelve 

 o'clock, however, my arms were aching with the work, and on the 

 lee-side of the vessel we stood more than knee-deep in warm seal- 

 skins, all blood and fat. Some of the men brouglit in as many as 



* A knife called a sheath-knife, and caiiied in the waist-belt, is generally used for 

 sculping seals. — H. E. 



