252 REPORT OE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
in the following manner: A pole 15 or 16 feet long, with a broad place at oue end, 
on which the fingers are clasped, and fitted with two prongs at the other end, which 
are inserted into the sockets of two barbed spear-heads, each attached to a stout 
line'either made fast to the pole near the middle or held in the hand of the spears- 
man. A club is also provided for knocking the seal on the head after he is speared ; 
and two buoys made of the skin of the hair seal ( Phoca peal'd Gill), taken off whole 
and blown up with the hair side in. These buoys are used either to bend on to 
the spear line if the animal is not easily killed, or in case of rough weather they are 
attached to each side of the canoe a little forward of the center, and render her 
steady and seaworthy. 
After a strong wind and the accompanying heavy sea have subsided, the seals lie 
on their backs in the water and sleep. Then the Indians cautiously and quietly ap- 
proach them, aud, selecting a victim, silently paddle near enough to thrust the spear 
deeply into its body, and at once withdrawing the pole leave the barbs imbedded in 
the flesh, sometimes killing it outright, but oftener only wounding it. The barbed 
speathead, however, holds fast, the line is quickly hauled in and the seal knocked 
in the head with a club. They smash in every seal’s head, whether it has been killed 
by the spear or not, and so universal is this practice that, although I have repeatedly 
offered to pay the Indians liberally for a perfect skull, I have been unable to procure 
a single specimen. The Indians here never use firearms to kill seals; they say the 
report would scare them away, and they strongly object to white men using rifles on 
the sealing grounds. 
After the day’s hunting is over, the canoes which have put off from the shore re- 
turn with the seals they have taken, which are then skinned on the beach or in the 
lodges by the women. The canoes belonging to the schooners take their catch on board 
the vessels which at first brought them all ashore to be skinned, but this season they 
have been mostly skinned and salted on the schooners. Each vessel takes as many 
canoes as she can carry, the number varying according to the size of the vessel, from 
eight to fifteen being the average, although the largest vessels can take twenty, but 
very seldom exceed fifteen. The Indians pay one-third of their catch for having them- 
selves and their canoes transported to the sealing grounds and back to Neah Bay. 
These schooners have cabin accommodations for the officers and crews, and the In- 
dians are assigned quarters in the hold among the salted skins, reeking carcasses, 
and blubber of the seals, for the Indians wish to save the blubber to make oil, and 
the carcasses to use for food, until they are too plentiful, when they are thrown over- 
board, or, if skinned on shore, left on the beach for the tide to remove. 
The largest of the schooners have forecastle accomodations for some of the Indians, 
but the most of them sleep in the hold, where the peculiar odor of the seal skins and 
blubber seems to impart a healthy and invigorating influence on these savages, who 
appear to thrive and grow fat during the season. 
The blubber taken from the seals is tried out by the women in the lodges; they 
cut it into small pieces, which they boil in iron pots and brass kettles. The oil when 
cold is put into various receptacles, generally into large pouches or bottles made 
from the paunches of seals, sea lions, or the killer ( Orca ater Cope), which abounds 
in Fuca Strait. These pouches are first cleaned, then blown up full of wind and 
rolled and rubbed and stretched, and again and again blown up till they attain their 
utmost tension. They are then left to dry, in which condition they retain their 
shape and are serviceable in holding oil. 
The cleanest and nicest oil is placed in these paunches and is used with their food 
as white people use sweet oil or butter, and when fresh is no more disagreeable than 
lard. Oil that gets scorched or dirty, or any surplus oil, is sold to the whites. * 
* From testimony taken by the Select Committee on Relations with Canada, Sen- 
ate Report 1530, part 1, Fifty-first Congress, first session, page 272. 
