Jasper Weekly Courier, Volume 54, Number 31, Jasper, Dubois County, 10 May 1912 — Page 6

The Spectacular Seal Hunt

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IMen Sometimes Drift f For Days on Ice Floes Separated From Tiieir Vessels by Fog Off Labrador Life of the Fur Seals on the Pribilof Islands In Bering Sea. Ä LITTLE more than a month ago close to 5,000 men joyously proclaimed the arrival of another seal hunting season, their means of earning a livelihood. On the first day twenty-two steamers moved out of the harbor of St. John. Newfoundland, for the north Atlantic on their annual quest, one of the most hazardous a man could find. Twothirds of the people of Newfoundland, the greatest fishing country in the world, are engaged in harvesting the ocean's wealth. From childhood to old age it is their calling. The seaboard is exposed to nature's fiercest moods, a::d perils lie in wait on every hand. The waste of human life is appalling. Hundreds perish annually, yet these simple fisher folk defy the elements year after year. The seal fishery or seal hunt takes place in the earl' spring among the fioes which cover the oceau off Newfoundland and Labrador. The winter's fury is then spending itself, blizzards sweep the north Atlantic, the icy masses are sent crashing against one another or rafted into chaotic heaps, and no situation can be much worse than that of the ships and crews enmeshed therein. The ships that compose the fleet arc manned by crews of from 100 to -o0 men, each vessel being literally packed with human beings, for the idea is to kill a load of seals and then return as rapidly as possible. The Newfoundland seals .are hunted for their skins and fat. They do not possess the furry covering of the Alaskan variety, the skin being usud mostly to make latent leather shoes and "kid' gloves. - The fat is converted into oil as a base for high cktss soap or with- the stearin removed acts as a substitute for olive oil. The stalls mount the ice fioes of Labrador in February, where their .voting arc lxrn. THE "WHiTECOAT" The young .snl known as the "white(oat" is the most valuable and the easiest to obtain. The species lies helpless on the fioes and is killed by a blow on the head with an iron shod pole called the gaff. The men rush on the ice with clubs and knives, and as the whitecoats are stunned with the former they are disemboweled with the Utter. Then they are gathered into a number ot henps, each on a separate islet of Ice called a pan, and the ship's flag is displayed above each pile, so that as she comes along in the wake of her men she collects them, the crew falling back to her at sundown. A fog may cloe over the floes, and

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the men from the various vessels are isolated by it, cut off from their vessels and incapable of movement for fear of the hidden dangers they may run into. Almost a thousand men were adrift for forty-eight hours in 1909. The fog enveloped them unexpectedly. Scantily clad and poorly rationed, the men had to burn their clubs and ropes for warmth and were forced to eat seal carcasses to prevent starvation. Fortunately the weather remained mild, without snowstorm and severe frosts, and a disaster was averted. When a blinding snowstorm arises while the men are out on the hunt the peril is extreme. At such times they make for the nearest sliip. Sometimes a vessel will have to accommodate as many as TOO men during a storm. MEMORABLE DISASTERS The disaster to the crew of the Greenland in the season of 1S9S, by which forty-eight men lost their lives and sixty-five were frost bitten, exceeded in harrowing interest any other connected with the industry. Moreover, it exemplified the terrible hardship and hazards incurred by the seal men, for when tragedy befalls ashore the victims usually are hurled into eternity without a moment's notice, but here Ihey suffered unspeakable torments from exposure and hunger before they perished on the pitiless ice fioe. The ship had ISO men dispersed oyer the ice when a blizzard arose, driving her seaward and leaving them helpless, exposed to the storm and biting arctic frost, with no food, no shelter, no extra clothing nothing to help them in battling against the terrible fate which beset them. For two days and nights they Avere scourged by the gale. Many froze to death, others were drowned in the seals' blowholes on the ice, and when the gale abated the ship worked her way back to where, dead and dying, the starved and frozen seal men lay. The survivors were gathered in as rapidly as could be, and the ship then bore up for home, her waist piled with the deatj and sixty suffering, frosted hunters berthed below in foul smelling, ill lighted quarters. It was in 1ST3 that the schooner Deerhouud lost twenty-four men out of fifty-six. They had been sent off in boats among the "open" or scattered ice to cruise in the watery lanes and thus conduct the hunt impossible on foot. A storm arose, and the boats were crushed between the writhing fragments, and the hapless occupants sank or scrambled on to a tossing pan. For two days the gale raged, and at its close there was not a vestige of the little flotilla to be seen. Two more days were spent by the schooner in cruising about, and part of one boat was sighted, and upon its being overhauled two starving and frost bitten seal men were found beneath it, who died soon after being rescued. They were the only ones of the whole number ever heard from. SEALS OFF ALASKA The seal industry is not confined entirely to the Atlantic side of North America. The richest catch, the fur seal, is to be found by hundreds of thousands on two small islands in the Pacific ocean off Alaska. St. Paul and St. George, composing the Pribilof group of islands, once were the scene

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vr&- . : : . i .Lav ..'.;.-.- O! :v v.; y.y.-.v v.-.v a. of mighty and indiscriminate slaughter. Today this wanton killing has been stopped, and the United States government is in entire control of the industry of these islands, where before it received royalties from a private source. The Pribilof group consists of two volcanic rocks about thirty miles apart, situated in the heart of the Bering sea. St. Paul, the larger, is no more than thirty-two square miles in extent. During the breeding season the sun seldom penetrates the dense mists that enshroud the islets. At the time they were discovered, in 1T8G, they were uninhabitated. Today there is a population of about five or six hundred, mostly of Kussian ancestry, who subsist mainly on the returns incident to the sealing industry. When the United States acquired Alaska from Russia there were 0.000,000 pinnipeds on the Pribilof group. There was no appreciable diminution in their number until 1SS0, when pelagic sealiug began to be extensively practiced. In 1S91 they had decreased to 1,000,000. After that the decrease became so marked that last year the United States government, Russia, Japan and Great Britain entered into an agreement providing that pelagic sealing (the knling of female seals) on tue itiduoi islands should be abolished. There were less than 200,000 seals recorded in the last official report of the islands. SEALS FIERCE FIGHTERS During the early days of May the the the mature seals islands, and begin to arrive on for several weeks males of the species engage in tierce battles for position upon the rookery proximity to the water determining desirability. In these combats many seals are killed or maimed so that they die. The femajes arrive about a month later. The bull doesn't leave his station an hour during the entire season, but remains for three months, neither eating nor drinking, but subsisting solely upon superfluous fat, with which he is provided on his arrival. The most important element in seal life on the rookeries consists of the unmated specimens, for it is from their ranjvs that the entire supply of skins is secured. The fur of the bull after the sixth year is of no commercial value. The bachelor seals, as they are called, do not attain the development necessary to admit of their forcing and maintaining p" .es for themselves in the rookeries until they are over six years old. To enter the area preempted by the breeding seals is certain death to the bachelor seals. The movements of seals in water are very rapid and graceful. On land they are very different. The body is contracted by an upward bending of the spine and no thrown forward by a series of jerks, and they manage to cover the ground far from slowly in this way. One of the chief peculiarities of the seal is the flexibility of the spine. A strange habit when wild is the swallowing of large stones without any apparent reason for so doing. Under the terms of a treaty signed by the United States, Great Britain. Japan and Russia, which is now in effect, the future of the seal Industry is assured. The life of the treaty is tifteen years, and the nations concerned believe it will operate to enlarge the seal herds.

WHERE CHALK COMES FROM.

How This Useful Articl Is Mined. 150,000 Tons Imported Yearly. "About as big as a piece of chalk" is a familiar old time phrase that is supposed to represent the limit in indefiniteuess of expression, for iu reality a piec of chalk might be the size of a pinLaad or it might be as big as a mountain. And yet there are many people to whom "a piece of chalk" would be definite enough persons to whom it would simply mean a lump of chalk such as carpenters or lumbermen use in marking lumber or chalk in the form of crayons used in marking on blackboards, these being perhaps the only ways in which they had ever seen chalk used. One such person, with but a limited knowledge of chalk's varied uses and of the great quantities in which it is used, was surprised to read in the ship news of a daily newspaper of the arrival of a steamer with a cargo of chalk. He was still more surprised to learn that such shipments are common; that there is imported into this country chalk to the amount of about 100,000 tous annually, says the Baltimore American. The chalk thus brought here comes mainly from the south of England and the north of France, with a little from Denmark. Much of it comes from chalk pits on the banks of the river Thames not far from Loudon. Chalk forma tions may rise above the level surface of .the earth, like the chalk cliffs on the southern coast of England, or they may lie under level ground and go be-, low the surface. The chalk miners first remove the accumulated earth and various deposits above the substance as they might in uncovering any mineral deposit or formation. Then the chalk is got out of a pit as stone might be taken from a quarry, except that chalk doesn't have to be blasted, only picks and crowbars being necessary. Besides the common chalk of commerce, which is quarried out and which is imported in great quantities, there is also imported what is called precipitate chalk. It is used in the manufacture of face and tooth powders. The quarried chalk is used in making whiting and in the manufacture of oilcloth. OF INTEREST TO ALL. The Pacific ocean is thought to weigh 948,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons. The telegraphic lines of Persia total 0,312 miles in length. Ozonized air is to be pumped into the underground passenger tunnels of London in very generous quantities. The whites of the eyes may be seen at a distance of eighty-five to ninety feet. In one year the island of Cuba will have telephones from one end of the island to the other. The arctic tern flies 22,000 miles on its summer vacation. -A Belated Sympathy. Mrs. A. I've heard the terrible news, my dear, and I've called to offer you mv sympathy. Mrs. B.-Sympathy! Terrible news! "What do you mean? Mrs. A. Why. this about your husband, his deserting you and running off with lbat chorils girl! Mrs b. Good gracious! That was a t weclc ag0 ne-s aome 1 r am now: satire. Fashionable Indisposition. "Well, here I am," announced the fashionable physician in' his breezy way. 'And now what do you think is the matter with you?" "Doctor, 1 hardly know." 'replied the fashionable patient. "What is new?" -Lou is v i 1 le Co u r ier-Jou rnal . Descent of Man. Life in a big city. A Slight Mistake. "Me no talkee Chinee velly well," explained the hostess upon greeting che visitor from the newest republic. "No matter," responded the latter. "I can converse tolerably well in English." Louisville Courier-Journal. A Prominent Nuisance. "Thai man is very much iu the public eye." "Yes," replied Senator Sorghum, "he is as irritating as a cinder from a locomotive." Washington Star. Reassurance. "1 know you don't love me." cried peevishly. "I do love you.' deniurred, "only not as much as imagine I do." Satire, she jie you

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Waiting to

By JULIAN I AAl supposed to be dead. I have no intention to publish my existence to the world, for if I should do so 1 would soon be dead in earnest. Nevertheless I am going to take the risk of telling the story under an assumed name. Years ago, when not far out of my teens, I was sent abroad to travel. Full of a desire to explore mysterious paths, 1 was foolish enough tP spy upon a baud of what are now called anarchists. Having been told by a young German meeting house, I through but ran that he suspected them of in a deserted barn near his went there one night, peeped a crack and was discovered. so fast that I congratulated myself uiy identity was unknown. A few weeks later wa "cloin?" a cathedral in one of the principal cities of the continent. I do not care to name the place. I was irreverently poking my nose into all the corners and crannies I could find when 1 was accosted by a young man, who asked me if I would like to see a very curious closet. I told him that I would be glad to see anything curious, whereupon he invited me to follow him. He led me to a dark corner, where a door not over four feet high stood open. "If you will stoop and enter there." he said, "you will be repaid for your trouble." I did as I was bid and entered a closet not much too large to hold my body. Then I heard the door slam and the bolts in the lock shoot forward. My sensations are not only indescribable, but, if I could give any idea of them whatever, would be extremely painful to the listener. I had not been locked up a minute before it occurred to me that the band upon whom I had spied had tracked me, discovered who I was and taken this means of putting me out of the way. There was nothing beneath me but a cement fioor, nothing about but four stone walls. Therefore I looked up to see what there might be for a ceiling. Far above I saw what appeared to be a rectangle of light. I gazed at it a long while, trying to determine what it was, but my mind was not in a state to deliberate on anything, and I made no headway. After a while T fell into a sort of stupor, owing doubtless to my terrible mental condition. During this time, I presume, I gained some rest from my sufferings, for my consciousness was restored. Since there was nothing to see except above I cast my eyes again upward. The rectangle had doubled in size. Again I fell to thinking as to what it might be, and this time, in order to occupy my mind and thus relieve the mental strain, I gave way to all sorts of speculation. The cathedral clock struck.-and I counted nine strokes. I had been shut up ever since 4 in the Religious Infection. Mother Johnny, you said you'd been to Sunday school. Johnny (with a faraway look) Yes, mamma. Mother-How does it happen that your hands smell of fish? Johnny I carried home the Sunday school paper, an' the outside page" is all about Jonah an' the whale. Ladies' Home Journal. Not the Best Foot Forward.

Fame That Wouldn't Be Denied. "I told him there were a dozen of people right here in town who had uever heard of him." "I guess that took him down a peg or two." "I guess it didn't. lie started right out to find them and borrow money." Houston Post. V ; - - h : t I :r :

Be Crushed

V ARN HAM afternoon. I was thfindereiriick. hitviug supposed that I had not been there an hour. Presently I saw something dangling from above. After watching it for some time I was able to make out Hint it was a rope. Then I discovered that it was coming toward me. Lower and lower, nearer and nearer, it came till at tet I was able to grasp it. TTaen I remembered that I had my box of wnx tapers for lighting cigars in my porlcnt. and. striking one of them, I tossed it upward. For an instant I could make out the ceiling. It was of iron, and in its center was an iron ring, from which the rope was swung. Lighting several tapers in succession, 1 held them above my bead and at last could see the ceiling as long as a taper would burn. Horror of horrors! lt was earning down to crush me! Again, from sheer agony I became unconscious. I was revived by the clock above striking 12. Every stroke seemed to toil my knell. The ceiling was now so low that I could toach it with my hand. In half an hour all would be over. Then I heard, far above, a sound as of the rubbing of metal against metal. I listened and could distinguish the noise of cogvhcels running together, and. oh, blessed sight the ceiling was rising! y Then it occurred to me that I was in the clock fower under the. weight, which was now being wound. I would not be crushed. I would starve. There was one chance for me. Seizing the rope, I tied it under my arms. As soon as the slack was taken up I began to rise ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred 'feet. There was more light. I looked above. Between me and the weight were arched windows. Might I not get through one of them on to a roof? I got up a swinging motion and when I reached the window clung to the casement and unloosened the rope. Breaking the glass. I looked out. The roof was twenty feet below. 1 jumped and landed safely on my feet. In the east was a streak of dawn, but I did not stop to take note of it. going here and there till I found a door by which to descend. I found myself in the body of the great cathedral. All the irreverence of the previous day was gone. I fell on my knees before the altar. Then, exhausted. 1 staggered to one of the cushioned pews and fell asleep. I was awakened by the sexton, whom I told that I had been locked in by mistake. He opened the door for me, and I went out knowing that if my enemies knew I had escaped them they would certainly kill me. I never stopped till I had reached Australia, where I lived for a time, then shifted to Alaska. I am now living in one of the large cities of the United States under an assumed name. An Inference. "Has Tolly got her music lesson mixed up with her gymnasium hour?" 4Of course not Why do you ask?" "I 'thought from the way she was nlaviiig she might have thoughtlessly taken .the piano for a punching bag. Baltimore American. The Least Part. Cook (w.ho has been discharged for dishonesty) Well, sir, you'll miss me before I've gone very long. Master Oh. we won't worry about that as long as we don't miss anything else. Sketch. A Ridiculous Oversight. Wim r. are vour rules ror success "I have none." "Dear me! A big man like you ought to have a few for interviewing purposes." Washington Herald. A Social Failure. Vi Sandy So poor Billy didn't make a success of the back gate act in Boston? Weary No; he could never -get accustomed to using finger bowls. The Only Way. Griggs So Smart is goiu; to marry his divorced wife. Briggs Yes; the mercenary cuss is after the alimony he pays her. New York Times. Candid Opinion. Blobbs Do you thinlc Miss Antique would appreciate a birthday present? Slobbs-Not so much ns a birthday absent. Philadelphia Record.

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