From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 49 The Best Seal in the World
Call ~
Exhaling, Chen Zhou picked up the wide-brimmed hat that had fallen on the wet sand and put it on his head. He then walked back a few steps and calmed his heartbeat.

After a moment, he came to the big seal, picked up the axe and gave it a heavy blow on the cracked skull.

The vitality of animals is sometimes much stronger than we imagine.

Worried that the seal would recover and sneak away when he was dismembering it, Chen Zhou chopped open the seal's thick skull with his axe and chopped into its brain.

Pulling out the hatchet and looking at the red and white stains on the axe blade, Chen Zhou was sure that the seal would never be able to revive, so he returned to the little seal.

He first tentatively grabbed the seal's tail and dragged it backwards, trying to pull it away from the sea and onto the beach.

However, the seal weighed much more than Robinson, and even if his strength increased greatly, he could not shake this behemoth.

There was no other choice, so Chen Zhou could only pick up the metal knife, gesture to find the angle, and prepare to dismember the little seal on the spot.

Generally speaking, animals are dismembered from the abdomen.

The same is true for slaughtering pigs and sheep.

Operating on the spine is easily obstructed by the spine, and the internal organs containing waste are all in the lower abdomen. The vision is poor when dissecting from top to bottom, and if you are not careful, you will damage the intestines and stomach, release feces and urine, and then contaminate the internal organs.

Chen Zhou really wanted to turn the seal over and cut open its belly directly.

But this thing was too heavy, its round body was slippery, and I couldn't put my hands on it, so I couldn't push it over.

If you can find a crowbar and stuff it under the seal, you can make it turn over.

But the crowbars had been taken to the mountain to dig a hole, and the tide was rising now. By the time they went back and forth to the cave, the seal's body might have been swallowed up by the sea and disappeared without a trace.

The sea water hit the little seal's bloody head and soaked Chen Zhou's leather boots.

He made a quick decision, gripped the iron knife tightly, and stabbed it into the center of the little seal's neck. Then he cut a long, crooked line that was deep enough to see the bone, all the way to the tail.

For Chen Zhou, who had little experience in dissection, this was a unique attempt and also a daunting task.

If he had enough time, he would peel off the seal skin bit by bit, tan it, spread it on the floor of the cave or hang it on the wall to display it as his trophy.

But now it is under the pressure brought by the tide.

Chen Zhou could only cut up the seal's thick skin and flesh piece by piece, running between the offshore and the beach, piling the cut meat on the shore.

The benefit of not having to worry about the integrity of the fur is that progress is faster.

The huge seal quickly turned into a pile of "parts" piled up on the beach, with the remaining blood washed away by the drizzle.

The spine and the ribs connected to it blocked the iron knife, becoming the first obstacle in Chen Zhou's decomposition process.

In keeping with his usual violent style, he swung his hatchet and chopped the ribs off the spine, then broke off the ribs and threw them aside.

After the ribs on both sides were removed, the lonely spine could no longer support the seal's body and it fell to the side.

Take out the seal's heart, liver and lungs, and chop off its head and front and back pairs of paws.

The entire seal carcass has been "slimmed down and reduced in weight", with outstanding results.

Grabbing the vertebrae near the coccyx and locking his fingers on the protrusion, Chen Zhou tried to pull it back.

Finally I can drag it.

After dragging the seal's "lower body" to the shore, Chen Zhou remained patient and dealt with the stomach and intestines, which were most prone to problems, to prevent undigested food residues from contaminating the clean inner cavity, and then carried out the final finishing work.

When he cut the seal's abdomen and removed its ureters and bladder, he followed the clues and found the seal's testicles and genitals hidden in the flesh near its excretion opening.

Unexpectedly, this smaller seal turned out to be a male. Chen Zhou removed the bladder, carefully cut off the catheter, tied it, and threw it into the sea.

He then removed the seal's reproductive organs separately and placed them on the beach.

This guy's genitals have bones inside, and are thirty centimeters long, making Chen Zhou feel ashamed of himself.

After cutting open the seal's lower abdomen, they carried the entire spine and put it together with large pieces of skin and flesh, and the seal was done.

I was busy and nervous, and I broke out in a sweat without realizing it. My body was extremely hot from moving, and I didn't feel cold even though my clothes were wet from the rain.

As time passed, the rain subsided and the sound of water drops hitting the hat was no longer heard.

After wiping the long knife and axe blade with the flesh from the seal's butt, Chen Zhou sat down next to the pile of meat, took off his wide-brimmed hat and looked into the distance at the sky.

The gray clouds have been pierced by the scorching sun, and above the hole is the blue sky.

The dazzling light poured down from above, illuminating the gloomy sea surface. The tops of the surging waves reflected the sunlight, presenting a blue crystal-like texture.

After all, it was not the rainy season yet, and the southwest monsoon could not show its power.

Even if this rain comes aggressively and with great force, the end result will still be just a lot of thunder but little rain, and it will not last long.

Estimating that the rain would stop completely in a while, and looking at the large seal carcass not far away, Chen Zhou decided to handle it more carefully, at least to peel off a complete seal skin.

The fur tanning technique taught by the brother on the forum is still recorded in his notebook, but he has never put it into practice.

It was not easy to come across such a rare item as seal skin, so no matter how busy he was at work, he had to make time to practice.

Use knives and axes for rough work.

For delicate work like skinning, you have to take out the dagger.

Squatting on the beach, loosening the buttons of his clothes to cool down, Chen Zhou hummed a happy little tune and started from the chopped-open skull of the big seal, peeling the skin bit by bit.

After working until the afternoon, he felt a little hungry, so he returned to the camp on the hillside.

Chen Zhou picked up the flint and some dry firewood and was about to return to the beach when he suddenly saw Lai Fu running out of the woods.

After patiently staying in the cave for a whole morning, after the rain stopped, Lai Fu finally couldn't bear the worry in his heart anymore, so he left home alone and went down the mountain to look for his owner.

It had walked this road to the beach countless times and soon arrived at the camp with ease.

Wang!
Seeing his owner holding firewood from afar, Lai Fu's tail immediately wagged and visible excitement and joy appeared on his face.

Wang Wang!

As if to remind his master of his arrival, Lai Fu quickened his pace and rushed to Chen Zhou's side. He leaned against his thigh, raised his head, and hummed and acted coquettishly.

"You little brat, you are so disobedient. Why did you come down here when I asked you to look after the house?"

Although he was scolding, Chen Zhou couldn't bear to use a harsh tone. He put down the firewood, squatted down, and hugged Lai Fu's strong neck.

Ha~ha~
Lai Fu stretched out his big wet tongue to wash Chen Zhou's face, then stuffed his big furry head into his arms. He leaned over to reveal his belly, and his four paws kicked restlessly, with his tail wagging all the time.

"Playing tricks~"

Chen Zhou couldn't stand Lai Fu's appearance the most. He held its warm belly and rubbed it a few times, then picked up the firewood again and greeted him.

"Let's go, you little greedy dog are quite lucky.

I just caught two seals. Let's grill some meat to try. I've never eaten this before."

Lai Fu returned to the beach with his head and tail wagging.

It was the first time in his life that Lai Fu saw such a huge animal. When he smelled the strange smell on the seal, he couldn't help but feel a little scared. He stood on the beach more than 30 meters away from the seal's carcass and barked loudly at it.

"Come on, why don't you leave?"

Chen Zhou had walked to the seal carcass, put down the firewood, took out the flint and called Lai Fu.

Lai Fu stopped barking and hesitated for a few seconds. His trust in his master finally overcame his fear. He took small steps and observed the reaction of the giant seal every time he approached the seal. Then he continued to move forward.

He walked and stopped like this, and when it came close, Chen Zhou had already lit the tinder, gathered a bunch of twigs, bent down and began to fan the flame.

"Look at your worthless look."

Extending his hand to block the incoming sea breeze and protecting the flame, Chen Zhou blew carefully to make the flame stronger and brighter, and then added dry firewood on it.

As time went by and he used it more and more, he became more and more experienced with this outdated tool, the flint, and his speed in making fire became faster and faster.

After the bonfire was stable, Chen Zhou went to the woods nearby and cut down some wet dead trees to use as fuel.

Lai Fu could not let go of his fear of the dead seal. He followed his master closely and did not dare to stay alone with the seal.

With an empty stomach, Chen Zhou stopped laughing at Lai Fu and took out a dagger, cut a piece of seal meat and roasted it on the fire.

Don’t be fooled by the seal’s round and fat body that makes it look like a fat man. In fact, its thick subcutaneous fat contains extremely developed muscles.

Because it is rich in hemoglobin, seal meat is very red in color, and the red is so rich that it is almost black-purple.

When Chen Zhou was in school, he learned from textbooks about the Inuit custom of eating raw seal meat. He also bought expensive seal oil and even more expensive seal skin coats on online shopping platforms, so he was not worried that seals were poisonous.

He had just met Lai Fu in the camp by chance, and he had forgotten to take some salt.

The meat was already roasting, and Chen Zhou didn't want to go back to the camp, so he simply turned over the seal meat on the tip of the knife and prepared to roast and eat it as it was.

The color of grilled seal meat is similar to that of fried beef, but the smell of seal meat is completely different from that of beef.

The smell had a faint salty smell of the sea, but was masked by a rich, indescribable meaty aroma, much stronger than that of roasted bird wings or roasted rabbit meat.

The meat slices were cut very thinly and were cooked in a short time.

Chen Zhou tasted it tentatively.

The taste of seal meat is very much like animal liver or a combination of donkey meat and fish. The meat is very delicate, and even when roasted, it has no bloody smell. If you taste it carefully, you can find that it is slightly salty, but not fishy.

To sum it up in two words – delicious.

“It’s still a little bland.

It’s a pity that there is no chili powder, no cumin, sesame or pepper…

I can’t imagine how much more flavorful this thing would be if it were sprinkled with a few layers of seasoning.”

While tearing the seal meat slices, Chen Zhou sighed that he had never longed for modern seasonings as much as he did at this moment.

He cut the seal meat into slices and roasted some for Lai Fu as well.

The few pieces of cloud that remained in the sky could no longer block the sunlight, and the unskinned carcass of the large seal began to emit a strong smell of blood and stench.

After the rain, the sky cleared up and seabirds that smelled the dead body came over and landed on the beach to watch the fun from afar.

After the man and the dog next to the corpse leave, they will come to share a piece of the pie.

After filling his stomach and putting on his brim hat, Chen Zhou continued his skinning work.

Unlike the light smell during rainfall, the stench of corpses produced by the baking sun became stronger. When he peeled the last part, Chen Zhou's whole face wrinkled and could hardly relax anymore.

The entire seal skin is nearly two and a half meters long, and when unfolded it is wider than the bed in the cave.

It was my first time skinning a seal and no amount of carefulness could make up for the lack of experience.

There were some flaws on the seal's head and four paws, and there was an obvious gap on the back of its neck from being hit by an axe. Because it had been spread out on the wet beach for too long and was covered with sand, it did not look very beautiful at the moment.

However, if you move the seal's skin, you will find that this not-so-thick layer of hair is actually divided into two layers.

The outer layer is short, shiny guard hairs for waterproofing, while the inner layer is soft down for warmth.

And because seal skin has no undercoat, after peeling it off, it is not as thick as the hair on the seal. Instead, it is thinner than sheepskin, like a large velvet blanket.

“It’s really good stuff, no wonder it’s so expensive!”

Chen Zhou picked up the seal skin, stroked the soft fur, and sighed at the silky feel.

It would be a shameful waste if such rare and high-quality fur was not tanned.

……

After skinning, the remaining large seal carcass is easy to deal with.

Having had experience in handling the carcasses of baby seals, Chen Zhou's movements were somewhat skilled.

He arranged the disassembled body tissues neatly according to the classification of subcutaneous fat layer, muscle layer, internal organs, bones, head and feet, and completed the task before dark.

The weather on the island is hot, and the cut meat cannot be thrown on the beach under any circumstances. Even if seabirds do not harm it, flies will lay eggs on the meat.

Chen Zhou planned to move the meat away overnight.

The fat-rich parts are first stacked in the shack and then taken to the mountain to make oil.

Edible fresh meat is placed in a wooden barrel and soaked in river water. If there are not enough wooden barrels, the meat should be cut into strips as soon as possible, smeared with salt and hung up. Otherwise, the meat will become rotten within three days.

After removing the fur, internal organs, blood and bones of the two seals, a total of about 300 kilograms of subcutaneous fat that can be used to make oil and about 220 kilograms of edible fresh meat were produced.

For Chen Zhou, this is a happy trouble.

After living a hard life for a long time, he suddenly became a "rich man", but he still remained stingy and was not willing to let go of even a small piece of meat.

Tie Lai Fu to the pile of seal meat and let him drive away the sneaky seabirds.

Carrying a lantern and pulling a cart, Chen Zhou worked all night and moved all the fresh meat, fat, bones and internal organs to the camp.

The last trip was completed near dawn.

The poor cart had never been repaired or maintained since it was made, and after a hard night's work, it was completely worn out.

A large oval hole appeared in the center of the thick wooden board, and its only remaining value was to be chopped and used as firewood.

After completing the moving work, Chen Zhou also had to move all the fat to the small tent where he used to live and pile it up for later use as oil.

Then he emptied several large wooden barrels, scooped water from the river, and soaked the fresh meat and internal organs in it, so as to keep the meat fresh and tender.

Finally, Chen Zhou took out the head of a large seal - it was a female seal.

Animal brains are a natural tanning material. If the wound on the seal's head is left alone, the brains inside will start to stink after a few days.

In order to avoid this situation from happening, Chen Zhou planned to dig out the seal's brain and put it in a glass jar.

Of course, he had to sterilize the glass jars by boiling water before filling them.

There is still a lot of work to be done one by one.

　Thanks: Mr_七月's reward! Thank you for your support!

　　感谢：Mr_七月、书友尾号0220、优雅&；疯狂、鬼大、壹号门、轻微的抑郁症患者、悦然电子、火鬼、齐齐哈尔飞艇、诡见愁、啊啊啊1112、太玄无极长生不老至尊皇帝、书友尾号1650、贵桂龙、霍晨达、珞珈山刘某人、再来一口锅包肉、开始学、似水浮木头、入坑十年爬不起来、书友尾号2599、书友尾号4128、青铜尚书、银音遁、烟光薄、书友尾号7072的月票，感谢各位支持！

　　Double update completed on 2/15!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)