202 IMPORTANCE OF THE SEAL-FISHERY. 



and those who are accustomed to it recommend it highly. The flesh is 

 a "universal remedy" among the Eskimos. When the Pandora left 

 England on her arctic expedition in 1874, her interpreter, Joe, an Es- 

 kimo, had a bad cough, but he refused all medicine, saying, " Bimeby, 

 eat seal, get well." And sure enough his coughing was heard no more 

 after he had feasted on his favorite food for a few days. " For young 

 ladies and gentlemen who cannot succeed in making their features suffi- 

 ciently attractive on chicken and cheesecakes, no diet is likely to suc- 

 ceed so well as delicate cutlets from the loin of a seal." 



When a cargo of pelts has been brought home, the fat is carefully 

 removed and converted into oil by exposure to the sun. The process may 

 be hastened by the aid of steam, but oil thus produced is said to be poorer 

 both for lamps and for the lubrication of machines. The skins are salted 

 and packed, and become cured in three weeks, finding ultimate use as shoe- 

 leather, and as covering for knapsacks, valises, small trunks, etc. 



In the North Atlantic alone the sealing gives employment every 

 spring to, say, twenty-five steamers from Newfoundland, built expressly 

 for the purpose, besides unnumbered sailing vessels ; the crews of this 

 fleet making a navy of about ten thousand eager young men. The start- 

 ing is a scene of the greatest bustle, and when the men return with rich 

 cargoes, and get their pockets full of money, there is great hilarity around 

 the usually dull towns of that far northern island. It is said that in one 

 year, recently, a round million of seals were taken in the North Atlantic 

 alone. Tet there seems to be little or no diminution in the crowds that 

 annually throng the ice-floes when March comes round. 



