The Sea 43 period, two of their vessels returned with 800 seals. These produced an average of six gallons of oil each, which amounted to 19 tons of oil, bringing the owners three hundred pounds. Seal oil was used for many purposes. One very common one was in the old tin and cast iron betty lamps. These were little open dishes with a spout or indentation on one side to hold a wick but no chimneys. They were exceed¬ ingly smokey and excessively smelly but they served for those who did not take the trouble to make candles. Seal skins were used in making moccasins which were worn by the Indians throughout the year. They were also worn by the older settlers in the winter who found that, when filled with straw and lots of socks, they were warmer than anything else they could put on. For the most of the settlers and for the most of Souris ' early days, it was found sufficient to kill a few seals that ventured near the shore in the fall and spring and for the rest to depend on being able to buy a few gallons of oil. Sealing, in properly equipped vessels, was too risky and too expensive an enterprise for the average Islander . Photo by Morley S. Acorn Courtesy Pictures of the Past by Leards. Vessels in Souris East A former Souris resident, Ethel Ferguson , told Ray Leard she remembered there were over 150 vessels in Port when this photo was taken. Gloucester Fleets: In the early 1800s, Georgetown , Souris and Alberton were harbours of refuge for American fishermen in stormy weather. The Charlottetown papers editorialized on the "forest of masts" and complained that they couldn't always get a mackerel for themselves. Many things conspired, however, to keep the mackerel fleets in either Yankee or Bluenose hands. One was the lack of capital and the other even greater handicap was the lack of vision and full appreciation of the market for fish. But even as victuallers and as ship's chandlers, the Island ports made money from the fishing. The American mackerel fishermen were seiners with five or six large seine nets in each schooner. The nets, of course, got broken or torn and, like patients to a hospital, the big seines came to the net fields of Souris where they were spread out and mended. Fifteen to twenty net-makers found