58 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



some liave sliort and quite hispid hair. They weigh at birth from four 

 to six and one-half pounds, but grow at an astounding rate, becoming 

 exceedingly fat in a few days. The blubber on the young a few da;\s 

 old is almost white and thickly interspersed with blood-vessels; it is not 

 ht to burn. There is usually but one young at a birth; still twins are 

 not of rare occurrence, and one instance came under my observation 

 ■where there were triplets, but they were small, and two of them would 

 probably not have lived had they been bom. The season for limiting 

 the young at lat. 07° N. begins about the middle of ^Marcli and con- 

 tinues until the latter part of Aiuil. The first two weeks of Ai)ril are 

 the most productive, as later the hair is apt to be very loose, and many 

 even have large bare i)atches on them. 



When the season fairly opens, the Eskimo hunter leaves the winter 

 encampment with his family and dog-team for some favorite resort of 

 this seal; he soon constructs his snow-hut, and is as well settled as if it 

 had been his habitation for years, for the seals he catches bring him 

 and his family food and fuel, and snow to melt water from is always 

 plenty, so that his wants are easily supplied, and he is contented and 

 hapi)y. 



The manner of hunting the young seal is to allow a dug to run on 

 ahead of the hunter, but having a strong seal- skin line about his neck, 

 which the Eskimo does not let go of. The dog scents the seal in its ex- 

 cavation, which could not have been detected from the outside by the 

 eye, and the hunter, by a vigorous jump, breaks down the cover before 

 the young seal can reach its atluk, and if he be successful enough to cut 

 off its retreat, it becomes an easj" prey ; otherwise he nuist use his seal- 

 ing-hook very quickly, or his game is gone. It sometimes liajqTens that 

 the hunter is unfortunate enough to jump the snow down directly over 

 the hole, and gets a i)retty thorough wetting. The wonu'u often take 

 part in this kind of sealing, and many of llicm arc quitt' cxpcit. The 

 children begin when they are four or five years old. The teeth and 11 ip- 

 pers of their first catch are saved as a troi)liy and worn about tlic little 

 fellow's neck. The next year when he begins, this will give him good 

 luck, llicy think. 



There exists a considerable spirit of rivalry among llic mothers as to 

 "whose ofl'spring has done the best, size, »S:c.. considered. This runs to 

 such a high pitch that I have known some mothers to cdtch tlic seal, and 

 then let her child lill it, so as to be able to swell the number of his 

 captures. 



