ALASKA. 83 



The killing-ganff, consisting usually of fifteen or twenty 

 men at a time, are under the supervision of a chief of their 

 own selection, and have, before going into action, a common 

 understanding as to what grades to kill, sparing the others 

 ■which are unfit, under age, &c., permitting them to escape and 

 return to the water as soon as the marked ones are knocked 

 down ; the natives then drag the slain out from the heap in 

 ■which they have fallen, and spread the bodies out over the 

 ground just free from touching one another so that they will 

 not be hastened in "heating" or blasting, finishing the work of 

 death by thrusting into the chest of each stunned and sense- 

 less seal a long, sharp knife, which touches the vitals and 

 bleeds it thoroughly ; and if a cool day, another "pod "is started 

 out and disposed of in the same way, and so on until a thou- 

 sand or two are laid out, or the drove is finished ; then they 

 turn to and skin; but if it is a warm day, every "pod" is 

 skinned as soon as it is knocked down. 



This work of killing as well as skinning is performed very 

 rapidly; for example, forty-five men or natives on Saint Paul's 

 during June and July, 1872, in less than four working-^weeks 

 drove, killed, skinned, and salted the pelts of 72,000 seals. 



"The labor of skinning is exceedingly severe, and is trying to 

 an expert, requiring long practice before the muscles of the 

 back and thighs are so developed as to permit a man to bend 

 down to and finish well a fair day's work. 



The bcdy of the seal, preparatory to skinning, is rolled over 

 or put upon its back, and 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 a 

 large, sharp knife. The fore and hind flippers are then succes- 

 sively lifted, and a s^weeping 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 to rapidly cut the skin clean 

 and fi-ee from the body afld blubber, which he rolls over and 

 out from the skin by hauling up on it as he advances with his 

 work, standing all the time stooping over the carcass so that 

 his hands are but slightly above it or the ground. This opera- 

 tion of skinning a fair-sized seal takes the best men only a min- 

 ute and a half, but the average time on the ground is about 

 four miuutes. 



Nothing is left of the skin upon the carcass save a small 



