A Quick Quiz- New Question

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Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,970
4,621
S. Lanarkshire
You don't need to breathe into the seal to inflate it's lungs…just straighten out the head/neck and open the flippers apart. It widens up the chest, etc., and enough air goes in to help lift the body. It'll float anyway, this just stops it filling up with water which will really make it drag.

There's only about 5lbs weight can be added to a human body to make the difference between floating and sinking. It's why life jackets don't need to be enormous. Seals need even less I'm told.

M
 

Wayland

Hárbarðr
As always Mary, I'm amazed at the breadth of your knowledge.
notworthy.gif
 

Toddy

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Jan 21, 2005
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S. Lanarkshire
:eek:

From the sublime to the ridiculous :) inside my head is full of 'stuff' :D

Someone (a rather spiteful young woman who didn't like that someone else might know something she didn't) snapped at me one day, "How do you know that ?".
I replied that I'd started learning at a very young age and had never bothered stopping.

I'm rather firmly of the opinion that I'm in good company here :D
The sheer scope of the general knowledge in this place is astonishing, and frankly good fun :)
No one knows it all, but it's a quiet pleasure hanging out with folks that know an awful lot of things that I don't.
I knew of the bungs, but hadn't seen them like that. You do find some very interesting stuff Wayland :cool:

On the topic of air inside and skins, etc., have you heard of cutting a little notch in the skin of a bird and blowing into it with a hollow bone or reed ? Supposedly it lets the skin separate tidily from the body and that can be removed in one piece once the anus is tied/severed and the head, wings and legs are taken off. Since the body feathers are much smaller than the wing and tail ones, when the 'bag' is turned inside out the oily feathers provide an excellent storage pouch for items such as bowstrings and fine hair fishing lines. The bag is smoked to preserve/tan it.

I can see all sorts of grossnesses involved in this, but admit that I do wonder if it'd work :dunno:

Wait and see….someone'll try it with the Sunday chicken :D

M
 
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John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,132
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It is just that fat floats!
A BA is designed simply to give enough buoyancy to keep your head out of the water - most folk are not fat enough to ensure enough buoyancy for this.
I did know a lady who was too "plump" to fit into a commercial buoyancy aid but had enough "personal buoyancy" to ensure that she floated so high naturally that if she floated vertically in the water her shoulders were clear of the water .. Scouting regs meant she had to wear a BA anyway...
Without filling up with water a Seal - with it's store of blubber - probably floats pretty high :)
 

JohnC

Full Member
Jun 28, 2005
2,624
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62
Edinburgh
Getting in and out of?

Is that the idea of the selkie legends? a sealskin that is taken off and on?
 

Nic Le Becheur

Forager
Sep 10, 2015
108
19
Ludlow
Getting in and out of?

Is that the idea of the selkie legends? a sealskin that is taken off and on?

Off-topic, but yes, I reckon so. Sealskins were popular as sleeping bags. Imagine finding survivors of a shipwreck on the beach after a storm, in or out of their bags. A woman half in, half out, might have been identified as a mermaid. In fact, there's a legend in Morayshire about a laird who married one, and a mermaid became the family crest.
 

Rustee

Forager
Oct 9, 2014
113
0
Edge of The Wilds
It's a suit made out of ______________ and it's used for _____________________.

So, I can fill in the blanks. Over the years I've thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning about indigenous and aboriginal tribes.:) Right then.

Let the intriguing quiz continue on.
 

Wayland

Hárbarðr
Well I told you that was easier didn't I.

It is called a "Jump suit" and the hunter given the honour of delivering the killing blow to a whale, would literally jump onto the back of the whale after it had been exhausted with multiple harpoons attached to floating bladders, and strike down through the blow hole. A gristly end but that is the nature of such things.

Obviously a wet job in a very cold environment.

The suit is made of seal skin, treated and very carefully sewn to be waterproof. The hole is indeed for getting into the suit and then sealing up with the drawstring.



OK. See if you can get this one then.

Quiz_Four.jpg


What is this for and what is it made from?
 

Firelite

Forager
Feb 25, 2010
188
1
bedfordshire
threadjack alert....Mary, I cannot speak from direct experience, but my grandfather used to trap and sell skins years ago. He maintained that pumping up a badger skin took a lot of the hard work out of skinning a brock, so your observation about using a hollow bone to help skin a bird seems entirely reasonable.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,970
4,621
S. Lanarkshire
threadjack alert....Mary, I cannot speak from direct experience, but my grandfather used to trap and sell skins years ago. He maintained that pumping up a badger skin took a lot of the hard work out of skinning a brock, so your observation about using a hollow bone to help skin a bird seems entirely reasonable.

Excellent :D
There you go; we learn something new every day.

I would never, ever, have thought of blowing up a badger to skin it; but the man must have known his business to work like that :)

Cheers Firelite :D

M
 

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