Thunder was caused by two old women shaking a dried sealskin between them; the lightning came when they turned the white side out.

Because he supplies nothing more than sealskins to the wholesale dealers at home, the fame of his deeds, his brilliant fights, his more brilliant escapes, and his most brilliant strategy will be lost among sixty-ton schooners, or told only in the mouths of drunken seamen whom none believe.

They were very similar to modern Skis but had a rigid binding made of sealskin with no means of tightening or loosening it.