GO NATURAL HISTORY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



It is only tlic adult males (called "tigak," stinker, by the Eskimo) 

 tliat emit the horribly disagreeable, all-permeating, ever-penetrating 

 odor that bas suggested its specific name. It is so strong that one can 

 smell an Ivskimo some distance when he has been partaking of the tlesh. 

 They say it is more nourishing than the tlesh of the females, and that a 

 person can endure great fatigue after eating it. If one of these tigak 

 comes in contact with any other seal meat, it will become so tainted as 

 to be repulsive to an educated palate ; even the atluk of the tif/ak can 

 be (h'tcctt'd by its odor. 



There is sometimes caught a hairless variety of this seal that the Es- 

 kimo call ''okitook." I have seen one such skin. It had a few fine 

 curly hairs scattered over it, but they were very ditierent in texture 

 from the ordinary hair. I do not know if the specimen otherwise dif- 

 fered from the ordinary seal. The food of the adults consists largely of 

 different s[)ecies of crustaceans, and during winter especially they sub- 

 sist to a considerable extent upon fish. I have found in them the re- 

 mains of Cottus scorpius, C. grcenlandiciis, Gadus ogac (commonly), and 

 Lqjaris vulgaris. During the time the adults shed for nearly a month 

 previous I could detect nothing but a few pebbles in their stonuichs. 

 They become poor at this time, and will sink when shot in the water. 

 The milk is thick and rich, and is sometimes eaten by the natives. The 

 excrement looks like pale, thickly clotted blood. 



There are sometimes found albinos, of which the Eskimo tell marvelous 

 stories, one being that when they rise to breathe in their atluks they 

 come st<'rn first, and, in fact, they think such animals have their breath- 

 iu'^ajiparatus on the posterior end of the body. I imagine tliis origi- 

 nated IVom a niiti\(' once har]woning an alhiiio in its atlnk ar.d linding 

 his har]>o()n fastened in one of the hind 1lii»])ers. 



Toward sjn'ing, when the sun is shining brightly, these seals e;m be 

 seen in .\\\ directions basking on the ice. They ai'«' to all ap]tearance 

 asleej*. but manage to wake n]> regularly e\ery lew luiuules to make 

 sure that there, is no danger about. A\ this season it is a favorite 

 method of the Eskimo to hunt them by crawling fiat on his belly toward 

 the seal, and when discovered to imitate the luoNcments of the animal, 

 and to advance only wlicu the seal looks in tlic opi)osite <lirection. In 

 this maniu'r they often a]»)>roach so close as to be able to i)nsh them 

 away from their atluks. This seal is of some commercial im]>ortance. 

 The Scotch whalers often buy from the natives «luriug the winter a thou- 

 sand skins. These are brought with the hhibber. autl often cost the pur- 



