stefansson-wrangel-09-32-007v

224 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

miles inland the temperature was around 70° or 75° in
the shade.

After nearly a month’s failure in sealing, Knight writes
on May 30th: “At last!!! Crawford got a seal while
out taking a few soundings through cracks and seal holes.
A nice shot at 80 yards. A medium-sized male, not very
fat.” After this, success was fairly constant, and
during the spring and early summer over forty seals
were secured. By now the party seem to have been
impressed with the importance of making use of every
hunting opportunity and of saving everything they
secured. They handled the seals carefully. The first
that were caught they skinned by the “casing” method.
These animals have a small head, and the skin is elastic
while the body is warm. The skinning is begun at the
mouth, and no opening is made with the knife, but the
hide is stripped back over the head somewhat as one
may pull off a long glove. You now have a bag which
may be filled with any liquid. Even in midwinter seal
blubber, which looks much like very fat bacon, will
gradually try out and the oil will be lost unless it is put
into a container. According to good Eskimo custom,
the Wrangel party now cut up every seal immediately,
removed the blubber from the outside of the body, cut
it into strips and put it into the sealskin bags. In this
way they saved all the fat. It may be estimated that
forty seals would give from fifteen hundred to two thou-
sand pounds of oil, equivalent in food value to that many
pounds of butter or bacon. The meat was also saved,
some of it probably by drying, although Knight does not
tell us so, the rest by being packed with ice. It did not
seem necessary to make any special effort to keep it
fresh, for it would be needed for dog feed, and other