YAKUTAT SEALING VILLAGE 



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FLENSING SEAL HIDE, YAKUTAT BAY. 



body and put to one side, and the remainder, consisting 

 of head, backbone, and attachments, lifted out of the skin 

 and thrown away upon the beach. All the cutting is done 

 with a broad cres- 

 cent-shaped knife of 

 iron or stone, the 

 back of which, if of 

 iron, is set in a round- 

 ed wooden handle, in 

 which a thumb hole 

 is sometimes made. 

 When a woman has 

 removed half a dozen 

 seal skins, she kneels 

 on the ground behind a board which she rests against her 

 knees, and spreading the hide, hair side down on the 

 board, rapidly strips the blubber in one large piece from 

 the hide, which as she draws it toward her is rolled up by 

 a twisting motion into a thick rope. The great sheet of 

 pinkish-white blubber is then cut into strips and put to 

 one side, to be tried out a little later. 



The Indians kill the seals not for the flesh, although this 

 is eaten, nor for the hides, though these are used, but for 

 the oil, which is a necessity to them. They drink it, pre- 

 serve berries in it, and use it for cooking, so that it really 

 forms a considerable and important part of their food. 

 The month of June, therefore, is usually spent in Yakutat 

 Bay, on what is perhaps the greatest hair sealing ground on 

 the coast. When the Harriman expedition reached that 

 point there were between three and four hundred people 

 gathered there to secure the annual supply of oil. 



The seals are hunted in small canoes, usually occupied 

 by two persons. They are light, and until one has be- 

 come accustomed to them, seem cranky and likely to tip 

 over. The shape of the cutwater is peculiar, for under 



