ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 105 



around in the open water, and one will at last come swimming in 

 under the ice towards the sound. Of course he strikes against the 

 loose net, runs his head or flipper through it and his struggles to 

 escape only serve to entangle him still more. The running out of 

 the end lines informs the hunter that there is a seal in the net. He 

 waits till he thinks that he is sufficiently entangled, and then hauls 

 him up through the middle hole. If he is not already drowned, his 

 neck is broken by bending the head back sharply, and he is disen- 

 tangled from the net which is set again. Of course, he very soon 

 freezes stiff, and if there is enough snow on the ice, he is stuck up 

 'on his tail, so as not to be covered up and lost should a drifting 

 snowstorm come on. One man has been known to take as many as 

 thirty seals in this way in a single night. This method of fishing 

 can only be practiced in the darkest nights. A bright moonlight, 

 or even a bright aurora seriously interferes with success. The dark 

 nights in December, when the moon is in southern declination and 

 does not rise, are generally the times of a great catch. The dead 

 seals are stacked up and brought in when convenient by the women 

 and dogsleds. Any small crack in the ice'to which the seals resort 

 is ihimediately surrounded by a cordon of nets which are visited 

 every two or three days, and many seals are thus taken. About the 

 end of February, when the sun is bright and the ice thick, the seals 

 have formed permanent breathing-holes to which many resort. 

 When such a hole is found, a net is set flat underneath it, by mak- 

 ing four or five holes round it, drawing the net down through the 

 main hole, and the corners out to these holes. One man, who has 

 stayed at home from the spring deer-hunt, will generally have three 

 or four nets set ip this way, which he visits every few days. This 

 method of netting is kept up during the spring till the ice begins to 

 melt on the surface and the seals come out on it, where they are 

 sometimes shot. Many seals are killed with rifle and nauligu from 

 the Miaks when whaling or hunting walrus in the spring and sum- 

 mer, and they are also caught in nets set along shore in Elson Bay. 

 There is still one more method of taking seals seldom practiced 

 near the villages, and only in the summer. This is with the light 

 darts, kukigu, from the kaiak. These darts are so arranged that the 

 little barbed head is detachable and attached to the shaft by a line 

 forming a bridle, which always pulls the shaft transversely through 

 the water. Three of these darts are carried in the kaiak and darted 

 into the seal with a hand board. The resistance of all three shafts 

 wearies the seal out until he can be approached and despatched. 



