528 FAMILY PHOCID^E. 



made of horse-hair, are inserted through the Seals' breathing- 

 holes in the ice, and that in these nets the Seals, in attempting 

 to reach the surface, become imprisoned.* 



Mr. Lloyd describes and figures another kind of net used in 

 the capture of Seals, which he calls the "Ligg-jSTat". His de- 

 scription of the "Ligg-Nat", borrowed, as is his figure, from 

 Linne",t is as follows: "It is attached to two wooden frames, 

 one at each end, which are secured to the bottom of a ' Skal- 

 Sten.' To the upper bar of the innermost of the frames is fast- 

 ened a long line reaching to the shore. When one pulls at this 

 line, the net is brought to the surface, but when the line is slack- 

 ened, it sinks to the bottom. The net, whilst there, is altogether 

 unseen, and the seal, unsuspicious of danger, creeps up, there- 

 fore, on to the 'Skal-Sten'. When the peasant sees that it is 

 asleep, he pulls gently at the line, which brings the net to the 

 surface, and surrounds the stone in the manner of a quadrangu- 

 lar fence. The animal, on awakening from its slumber, casts 

 itself headlong into the water, but cannot extricate itself from 

 the toils before the man, with his harpoon or other implement 

 of destruction, reaches the spot and puts an end to its exist- 

 ence."! 



3. The Seal-Box. Mr. Lloyd also describes another ingenious 

 device for the capture of Seals, used in Norway and Sweden. 

 He says it is called the " 8kdl-Kista r/ ', or Seal-box. "In princi- 

 ple it is the same as the so-called Watten- Giller, the expedient 

 commonly adopted to catch rats and mice, viz., a ' balance-board/ 

 placed across a tub of water. It is constructed of logs, and 

 square in form, as seen in the above diagram [referring to a fig- 

 ure of the " Skiil-Kista"], and is sunk in the water up to the let- 

 ter Y [about the basal third being submerged]. Large stones 

 are afterwards heaped up around and about it, especially at both 

 ends, so as to make it resemble a 'Skal-Sten' as much as possi- 

 ble. The trap-door T cousists of an oblong flat stone, or of plank 

 ends, and swings on an iron bar, the extremities of which rest 

 on the side- walls of the ' Skiil-Kista ' itself. To prevent the trap- 

 door T from falling too low there is a spring or stop, so that on 

 the pressure ceasing it at once resumes its horizontal position. 

 This device, as will be readily understood, is covered with sea- 



* Arch, fur Anat. u. Phys., 1873, p. 124. 



t Reisen durch Oelaud \md Gothland, etc. Aus dem schwedischen iiber- 

 setzt. Halle, 1764, pp. 203, 204, pi. 1, fig. 6. 

 t Game Birds and Wild Fowl, etc., pp. 424, 425. 



