138 MARINE MAMMALS OF THE NORTE-WESTEBN COAST. 



becomes warm, the animals of both sexes congregate in their favorite rookeries, and 

 the females climb to the most inaccessible places among the rocks and crags, to 

 bring forth and nurture their offspring. But here they are hunted by the natives 

 accustomed to the use of hre-arms, who shoot them for the skins of the young 

 ones, which are used for clothing. 



In this region also, during the spring and fall, after the "net-sealing" is 

 over, great numbers of Sea Lions are captured upon the floating ice, with gun or 

 spear; and during the rigorous months, the seal -hunters cut through the congealed 

 mass what they term "breathing -holes." Through these the seals emerge to the 

 frosted surface, and, if the sun peers through the wintery clouds, the creature, 

 warmed into new life, may stroll hundreds of yards away ; the watchful hunter, 

 secreted behind a cake of ice or a bank of snow, rushes out from his covert, and 

 places a covering over the hole, effectually preventing the animal's escape, and then 

 dispatches it with knife and spear. Its skin is stripped off, scraped clean, closely 

 rolled, and laid away until the hair starts — this process is called "souring;" then 

 the hair is scoured off, and the bare hide is stretched to season — a process usually 

 requiring about ten days — when it is taken down and rubbed between the hands 

 to make it pliable ; this completes the whole course of dressing it. The prepared 

 hides are then converted into harness for the sledge -dogs and reindeer, and water- 

 proof bags; if wanted for the soles of moccasins, or to cover their skin -boats, they 

 are dried with the hair on, and become nearly as stiff as plates of iron. The blub- 

 ber of the animals, if killed in the fall or winter, is preserved by freezing, and is 

 used for food, fuel, and lights, as desired ; while the same part of those taken 

 during the spring and summer is put in the skins of young seals, and placed in 

 earthen vaults, where it keeps fresh until required for consumption. The residue 

 of the animal is tumbled into a reservoir, sunk below the surface of the ground, 

 where it is kept for the winter's supply of food for the dogs, which live upon 

 the frozen flesh and entrails of the seals, whose skin furnishes the tackle by 

 which they transport the primitive sledge over the snow -clad wastes of Siberia and 

 Kamschatka. 



In the southern regions, the Sea Lion is but rarely pursued by the aborigines; 

 for the Fuegians, who are so little elevated above the beast, have no means of 

 capturing the animal, as have the Aleuts and Koraks of the north ; and those 

 degraded types of humanity, who wander about the shores of Tierra del Fuego, 

 partake of the same food as do the amphibious herds. But the Patagonians are 

 sometimes found clothed in long mantles of Sea Lion skins, and the seal is other- 

 wise utilized by them. Along the coasts of Chile and Peru, the inflated skins of 



