| Show light Is cardinal virtue of the newfoundland seal hunters fleet brings ba back C k miladys shoes and soap in the raw milady dressed in the height of fashion rarely thinks of the storm swept arctic seas where sturdy ships have hava been crushed burned and blown up in the race to fill staunch hulls of the newfoundland found land scaling fleet with seal skins and fat from which her fire fine shoes handbag and costly toilet soap may be made says a bulletin from the washington D C headquarters of the national geographic society with the lengthening days of march thousands of mother seals come up through bobbing holes and bear their young on the shifting ice fields north of newfoundland innumerable little furry white puppies lie among the ice pinnacles gaining weight at the phenomenal rate of two or three pounds a day daddy seal goes off with his cronies to boast about his youngster mother seal stays home and does the work hour after hour she sha scours the adjacent icy seas for fish she does not feed fish to her young but gobbles great quantities herself so that she may provide abundant rich milk for her offspring when a baby seal is about two weeks old and resembles a fat roll of butter it may botica its mother sni sniffing fling the air aie suspiciously not far away a huge black hulk drifts close through shattered ice pans A clamor of strange noises fills the air and odd two legged creatures run out over the fields of ice the baby seal is too much into interested resto d to be disturbed but as several of the intruders draw near nar its startled mother makes off with other gro grownups grown wn ups quickly they slip into the ocean through convenient breathing h holes 0 le T the h e b baby a b y s seal e a 1 a and n d lt its s p playmates m a tes w wriggle r i gg 1 e t toward 0 w a r d t the h e s strangers tr a 4 early in march a sma small 11 fleet of scarred ice breaking ships sail out of the bottleneck of st johns harbor bound for seal pe peppered ppe red ice fields off labrador steamers smash their thair th air way through grinding ice guided by members of the crew in lookout barrels high on the masts their cries of seals ahead give the signal for frenzied z t cd preparations among the milling i ng crews beneath at the call over the sides 1 nimble rawboned raw boned men jump out on spinning pans armed with dogwood bats having iron hooks and spikes razor sharp knives and light drag ropes acres of moon eyed white pincushions pin cushions await the fishermen curious and unafraid the sealer attacks his quarry with his bat expertly husks off the scalps the skins and adherent tat fat leaving the carcasses steaming on the ice three or four scalps are strung on a rope by which the scalar hauls them to one of the colored marker flags where several men pile their catches later the ship breaks through the ice fields to these piles the sculls are holsted hoisted aboard and dumped into fat soaked holds back in port the fat layers are cut off the pelts and rendered into a fine odorless colorless colori ass oil rough skins are transformed into fine leather the oil is a constituent of some soaps and also is used as a lubricant as an illuminating oil as an adulterant of cod liver oil and in treating leather seal skins shins are cut and sewn into boots pocketbooks and novelty leather goods |
