HABITS, PRODUCTS, AND THE CHASE. 629 



cased ourselves in the somewhat hispid but most comfortable 

 nether garments. It is only high dignitaries like ' Herr Inspek- 

 tor' that can afford such extravagance as a Kassigiak (Callo- 

 cephalus vitulinus) wardrobe ! The Arctic belles monopolize them 

 all." * Rink states that the number annually captured in South 

 Greenland has been calculated at 51, 000. t Capt. J. C. Boss 

 states that the Esquimaux wholly depend upon it for their 

 winter food, and Von Schrenck alludes to the great importance 

 of this animal to the natives of Amoor Land. 



Although the methods of capture employed by the Eskimo 

 have already been to some extent described, I transcribe the fol- 

 lowing from Captain Ross, who says: "... when all 

 other animals have retired to a more temperate climate the 

 Seal is sought by the Esquimaux, whose dogs are trained to 

 hunt over the extensive floes of level ice, and to scent out the 

 concealed breathing-holes of the Rough Seal. So soon as one 

 is discovered, a snow wall is built around it, to protect the 

 huntsman from the bitterness of the passing breeze; where, 

 with his spear uplifted, he will sit for hours until his victim 

 rises to breathe, and falls an easy sacrifice to his unerring aim. 

 In this manner a party of thirty hunters killed 150 of these 

 animals during the first two months they remained in our 

 neighborhood ; the fishery for ten or twelve miles around was 

 then completely exhausted; so they broke up into various 

 smaller parties and dispersed in various directions." f 



Dr. Rink states that the Netsek is " stationary throughout the 

 coast" of Danish Greenland. "Only stray individuals of this 

 species", he observes, "emigrate to the main drift-ice of Baf- 

 fin's Bay in July, and return to the coast when the first bay-ice 

 is forming in September, or occasionally appearing whenever 

 the weather has been stormy. But the chief stock, whose favor- 

 ite haunts, as has been described, are ice fjords, does not seem 

 to leave the coast at all. It is almost exclusively this seal that 

 is captured as 'utok' and by means of the ice-nets." 



* Proc. Zool. Soc. Loud., 1868, p. 417; Nat. Hist., Geol., etc., Greenland, 

 Main., p. 45. 



t Danish Greenland, etc., p. 123. 

 t Ross's 2d Voy., App., p. xix. 

 Danish Greenland, etc., p. 123. 



