bobbing holes

• Format: Manuscript
• Language: English
• Subjects: English language > Dialects > Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/5633

bobbing vbl n 100 VIKINGS OF THE ICE Mr. Chafe asserts: The method of making the bobing hole is well known. The first <-- duty of the seal is ice-boring. A small hole is clawed in the ice. Then one flipper is planted firmly and the body is revolved around the hind flippers. Mr. M. T. Flynn, another expert, declares: Seals choose thin ice, just what they can break through with their heads after one night's freezing. They keep the holes open day and night till the ice gets strong enough to mount upon, to bring forth their young. Of course there are always two seals for every hole, male and female, and they will follow this ice wherever the winds drive it. I have seen it stated that they mount the ice and bore down. Nothing can be farther from the truth, as they make the hole from below, and no matter how hard the frost, they keep it open. By the middle of March, or the 20th, the ice is perhaps fifteen or twenty inches thick, with a few extra inches around the hole.� Once this bobbing-hole task is ended, along with the -- cares of maternity, away all the old seals go to "ride de ice an' go away an' clane dereselfs, an' have an enj'yin' time." They post sentinels and take life easy. "Dey putts a big white dog on watch, up on a 'ummock, in evvery patch," a gunner told me, "an' dat'm de feller you'm got to kill, first. Got to shoot un. Den de odders see un lay quate [quiet] an' dem bide on ice. But if him go, dem ahl goes." At this time, so great is their lassitude that sometimes the hunters can hardly drive them down. On a fine, sunny day, the herd will often prefer to stand and deliver its life, rather than exert itself to flee. Sometimes a seal in this stage is unwilling to take the water because its pelt gets sunburned and so tender that it tears. I have seen _______ �Newfoundland Commercial Annual, for 1921. DNE-cit Used I and Sup Used I and Sup 2 Used I This is the reverse of B_4641. Only quote from page 37 appears in DNE I. This side of card contains quote from page 100.