504 MODES OF HUNTING AND FISHING. 



under water a little way, but it is so great an impediment, 

 that the seal is soon obliged to come up. " The Greenlander 

 hastens to the spot where he sees the bladder rise up, and 

 smites the seal as soon as it appears" with the great lance 

 or " angovigak." This is not barbed, and does not therefore 

 remain in the seal's body, but can be used again and again 



FIG. 219. 



Bone Harpoon. 



until the animal is exhausted. The second way is the " clapper- 

 hunt." If the Esquimaux find, or can drive any seals into the 

 creeks or inlets, they frighten them by shouting, clapping, 

 and throwing stones every time they come up to breathe, 

 until at last they are exhausted and easily killed. In winter, 

 when the sea is frozen, the seals, which are obliged to come 



' O 



up from time to time for the sake of air, keep open certain 

 breathing- holes for this purpose, and the Esquimaux, when 

 he has found one of these, waits patiently till the seal makes 

 its appearance, when he kills it instantly with his harpoon. 



The Esquimaux are excellent deerstalkers, and are much 

 assisted by the skill with which they can imitate the cry of 

 the reindeer. Fish are caught sometimes with the hook and 

 line, sometimes by means of small nets when they come to 

 the shore in shoals to spawn, or finally with the spear. The 

 nets are made of " small hoops or rings of whalebone, firmly 

 lashed together with rings of the same material."* The fishing- 

 lines are also made of whalebone. -f- Salmon are sometimes 

 so abundant, that in Boothia Felix, Captain Eoss bought a 

 ton weight for a single knife. For killing birds they use 

 an instrument in some respects like the "bolas" of South 



* Parry, 1. c . p. 100. t Egede, 1. c. p. 107. 



