308 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



only lifting your head at varying intervals but also going through 

 whatever seal-like antics you have observed while watching the 

 real seals through your field glasses. 



It is one of the few unharmful results of the late war that we 

 can now describe freely and discuss openly certain things that 

 were taboo before. Thanks to the war experience and frankness 

 of our soldiers, those of us who lack practical experience have at 

 least theoretical knowledge of the "cooties" which our more fa- 

 miliar ancestors knew as a louse. Seals are lousy, not with our 

 familiar graybacks of course, but with a variety of louse or tick 

 of their own. Being thus infested they itch, itching they want to 

 scratch, and not being restrained by any etiquette in these matters 

 they are continually rubbing and scratching themselves. They rub 

 themselves by rolling on the ice and scratch chiefly with their hind 

 flippers which are long and flexible and armed with admirable 

 claws. It is therefore advisable for the hunter to roll about a 

 little and to flex his legs from the knees frequently as if scratching 

 with hind flippers. These actions make an impression upon the seal 

 which in the long run is convincing and in eight cases out of ten 

 a good hunter is accepted as a fellow seal that has just come out 

 of his hole to bask and sleep. The seals that refuse to be con- 

 vinced have probably had a narrow escape recently from a bear. 

 Possibly, too, some of them may be getting hungry and may 

 decide not to bother to study the new arrival but to take the occa- 

 sion for going down and having a feed. That this motive fre- 

 quently influences seals we judge from the fact that towards 

 midnight a seal usually goes down soon after noticing us. As 

 remarked elsewhere, a seal usually comes up on the ice in the 

 early morning or forenoon and commonly goes down to feed 

 towards midnight. 



But if you once get your seal convinced he stays convinced. 

 There is nothing fickle about a seal. He not only does not fear 

 you but even appears to rely on you. He is always alertly on 

 guard against the approach of a bear. I am not very deep in seal 

 psychology, but they appear to me to say to themselves: "Over 

 there is a brother seal, and if a bear approaches from that side he 

 will get him before he gets me. So I can afford to leave that 

 quarter unwatched and can devote myself to guarding against a 

 surprise from the other side." As if he held this view, the seal 

 will give you only a casual glance now and then and you can 

 approach with great confidence. You crawl ahead while he sleeps 

 and stop when he wakes up. If he watches you for more than a 



