Translation 2783

320
Maximum speed on snow
more than 120 km/hour
Cruising speed on water
55-60 km/hour
Cruising speed on snow . . .
50-60 km/hour
Maximum range on snow with economic load of ,
650 kg and two men, including driver 500-600 km
Maximum range on water with economic load:
500 kg 4. two men 200 km
300 kg 4- two men 350 km
Amphibious ski-planes have come into wide use for hunting .
seals in the Caspian Sea and especially in Far Eaetern waters, where
dense fragmented ice and brash-ice sometimes keep sealing vessels
from approaching the places where seals congregate.
Where sealing is carried on at sea the amphibious ski-planes
are carried on board a base-ship, and are lowered on to the ice or
the water by the ship's tackle. After taking on the hunters the
ski-planes disperse to the rookeries. To increase their transportation
capacity, freight-trailers are attached to the ski-planes.
Each trailer can take a load of 500 to 600 kg, The ski-planes are .
able to tow two railers at the same time,
Fur Seals. Under current regulations the hunting of fur
seals is permitted only on the islands from June 1 to AugUst 1. •
Only bachelor males, three years old or older, may be killed. Each
year a kill-limit for fur seals is fixed on the basis of a census.
The hunting of fur seals begins with a drive. Wind and
precipitation do not impede it, but it is desirable that the air
temperature should be from 5 0 to 7 0 C during the drive. The seals
are surrounded, headed off from the sea, and driven through the open
gates of a corraL hunters drive them by.making noises and rapid
movements and by hitting them with special clubs made of hardwood
(ash or oak), about two metres long and 5 cm in diameter at one end
and 10 cm at the other. One man strikes a seal on the nose with a
mallet; the stunned animal is dragged aside and turned on its back,
and thon another man stabs it in the heart with a dagger-like knife.
when females, pups, yearlings, and two-year-olds are accidentallY
taken up in the drive, they are let out of the corral
through a special gate.