266 



NA TURE 



\Aug. 6, 1874 



houses to protect them from the wind ; but at the best it 

 is bitterly cold work. They also take a few biscuits with 

 them, and eat, in addition, the hearts of the young seals, 

 uncooked. The signals for recall are the ensign at the 

 mast-head in clear, and the steam whistle in foggy 

 weather. 



The seals taken generally arc of two kinds, " Harps," 

 or Saddle-back, and " Hoods," or Bladder-nose Seal. 



The" Harps "are distinguished by the sealers as "White 

 Coats " when young, from their colour ; " Dippers " after 

 the white coat has fallen off and the spotted skin shows ; 

 " Bedlemers " till the saddle or harp is formed ; and 

 " Saddle Harps " when they arrive at maturity. " Jennies " 

 or "Tuckers" are the females in the first year of whelping, 

 and "Lords" or " Noggerheads" those deformed from 

 the want of proper nourishment consequent on the mother 

 being driven away or killed. Harps have black claws. 



The " White Coat " remains perfectly passive to be 

 killed, and the " Dipper " may be attracted by whistling 

 or singing, and approached till within striking distance ; 

 but the mothers take to the water and desert their pups 

 at the slightest alarm. The males are never with their 

 famihes, but are always to be found on the south-west 

 edge of the whelping ice. This generally consists of ice 

 made on the coast of Labrador with small hummocks on 

 it, that give shelter to the young from the north-easterly 

 winds, the approach of which may be known by the in- 

 cessant crying of the young Harps. The " harp " or saddle 

 begins to form at the age of one year, is perceptible at the 

 second, and perfect at the third. After that it is difficult 

 to judge the age, but the teeth generally give evidence of 

 extreme age. 



The " Hood" is much the finer kind in size and appear- 

 ance, and is so called from an air-bag covering the head 

 of the full-grown male, that can be inflated at will, and is 

 so when danger is apprehended. It resists completely the 

 blows from a gaff, and the slugs used in sealing do not 

 penetrate it except at close quarters. They can, however, 

 be killed by a blow under and along the line of the jaw, 

 but considerable dexterity is required to cfiect this, and 

 they can be shot dead by hitting them behind the air-bag 

 or hood. They live in " famihes," male, female, and pup. 

 Unlike the " Harps," the female rarely deserts her young, 

 but makes a feeble and ineffectual defence in its behalf, 

 and is killed by its side ; and in most cases the male offers 

 a desperate resistance, making it unsafe for one man to 

 attack it. They have white claws, and the male attains a 

 length of 7 ft., and has a beautiful dark spotted skin. 

 The young are white with a black stripe down the back, 

 and rarely" cry, nor have either sex any sign of the hood. 

 The ice on which they whelp is heavy Arctic ice, rafted into 

 lar'^e hummocks, and is generally to the north-eastward 

 of 'the "Harps." The young of this species come to 

 maturity and take to the water earlier than the " White 

 Coats." 



The females of both species are ready for fishing as 

 soon as the young are born, and beat inshore to the shoal 

 fishing-grounds, returning with unerring certainty to the 

 pan on which they had left their young, notwithstanding 

 wheel or drift of ice in the interval. The inference on 

 seeing old seals is that the young are outside ; they are 

 never to be seen northward of their whelps. Both species 

 have the power of protruding and withdrawing the teat, so 

 that after the )oung have suckled, no danger may accrue 

 from crawling over the ice. 



When the vessels have secured a large cargo, or at the 

 latest by April 10, they return to St. John's to prevent 

 the loss of the blubber by running from excess of heat. 

 On the south side of the harbour large vats have been 

 constructed, and machines erected for preparing and 

 refining the oil from the blubber. The pelts are taken 

 from the hold and passed through the hands of 

 " skinners," who separate blubber from the skin, take out 

 the flippers, cut off the noses, S:c. The blubber is then 



weighed and the quantity recorded as the catch, less illlbs. 

 for each pelt to balance the flesh left on in scalping. The 

 skins are counted and a deduction of sixpence currency 

 made from their value for every hole found in addition to 

 those necessary for lacing, &c. "Cats" are pelts that 

 weigh less than 25 lbs., and are not included with the other 

 seals, but have a specially low market value of their own, 

 that helps to prevent the animals being taken while too 

 young. 



The blubber is thrown into a trough and conveyed 

 thence into tearing machines, two cylinders with rough 

 teeth that grind the blubber and tear the vesicles ; thence 

 to tanks, where it is converted by steam into oil and con- 

 veyed to other receptacles. A further process of bleaching 

 takes place in reservoirs covered with glass roofs, and 

 sometimes lined with tin, that in a few days makes the oil 

 as clear as water. The refuse is subjected to great pres- 

 sure to take off the last and worst kind of oil, and is then 

 sold for manure. Seal blubber is valuable in the following 

 order, viz.: that of (i) Young Harp ; (2) Young Hood; (3) 

 Bedlemers ; (4) Old Harps ; (5) Male or " Dog" Hood ; 

 (6) Female Hood. The blubber of the last is of much the 

 least value as the small amount of oil contained tints with 

 a yellow colour oil from the other species, and the vesicles 

 are so tough as occasionally to break the teeth of the tearing 

 machines. The skins are salted and exported to England, 

 where they are converted into fine leather and used in 

 the manufacture of ladies' boots. 



If the vessels are cleared before April 15, they make a 

 second voyage and hunt the Dippers and old Harps, prin- 

 cipally the latter. The Hoods, both old and young, have 

 by that time entirely disappeared. In rare successful 

 cases a third trip is sometimes made, and the vessels do 

 not return till the middle of May. The catch of 1874 has 

 been very poor, from a great number of very young seals 

 having been taken, but in former years as many as 33,000 

 have been brought in by a steamer from the first voyage. 



The ice encountered in the course of the voyage is of 

 various kinds. In mild winters large areas of " sish," or 

 frozen snow and salt water, are met with. This is most 

 difficult to walk on, and the men rarely escape a ducking 

 during a day's tramp. Harp ice is the next in point of 

 thickness, and is generally rafted ice made on the La- 

 brador shore, while the heaviest, or true Arctic ice, large 

 hummocks and heavy |ians, is the favourite place of resort 

 for Hoods. Though all icebergs travel from the north, 

 those predominating this year were large, low, and flat ; 

 one was seen from twenty to forty feet in height, that was 

 quite two miles measured diagonally. It is dangerous to 

 try to cross their track, because the ice is packed by the 

 pressure of the berg, so that not even a powerful steamer 

 can force her way through. Ice navigation is very un- 

 certain from many causes, but principally from tides, 

 currents, and " wheel " of the ice. When near the land 

 the two former have to be specially guarded against, as 

 the surrounding ice remains the same and gives no evi- 

 dence of the change of position. In one case a drift of 

 twenty-five miles was experienced in two days ; ship, ice- 

 bergs, and field ice remaining in exactly the same relative 

 positions. 



The " wheel" of the ice is caused by pressure of heavier 

 ice on one corner of the field, causing the latter to turn 

 as on a pivot in the direction of the pressure. This is 

 quite uncertain in direction and speed, and no experience 

 can foresee either. Running ice is also a source of danger 

 to vessels fast in it, as they are propelled with irresistible 

 force against any obstacles to their progress — icebergs, 

 rocks, &c. In the spring of 1872 a steamer {Wolf) was 

 crushed in an instant by that means, and the vessel went 

 down before the men had time to secure their clothes. 

 Often before a breeze of wind comes the ice rafts or 

 squeezes, layer on layer, with a creaking sound. This 

 also occurs in heavy squalls, and is a source of great 

 danger to vessels fast in heavy ice. 



