8 



going from south to north almost side by side with the bladder. 

 Experience must soon have shown the usefulness of forming and 

 fastening to the shaft the point of the missile in such a manner, 

 that after having hit the game it would be detached from the end of 

 it and only remain hanging at it by a strap. The use of the large 

 harpoon especially required THAT THE POINT SHOULD GET WHOLLY 

 RID OF THE SHAFT which in this way was allowed to remain float- 

 ing while the seal ran off with the line and the bladder. For 

 this purpose the FOREMOST PART OF THE SHAFT HAS A JOINT 

 THAT ENABLES IT TO BE BENT by the Struggles of the animal, 

 whereupon the point and the line directely will fall off. The 

 same flexibility has also been given to the lance by which the 

 seal receives its mortal wounds after being hit with the harpoon. 

 Missiles with points able to get loose from the end of the shaft 

 are everywhere met with among kayak implements, but the 

 appropriate mode of fashioning the point for this aim is only 

 found gradually developed as we proceed northward. 



Finally we have to consider that side by side with the ameliora- 

 tion of the implements the kayak itself is rendered more suitable 

 for overcoming the emergencies to which its occupant is exposed, 

 and that in this way the marvellous art of HUNTING SEALS FROM 

 A KAYAK DOES NOT ATTAIN ITS HIGHEST PERFECTION EXCEPT IN 

 GREENLAND. This superiority is manifested in TWO ACCOM- 

 PLISHMENTS which in Greenland only are considered indispensable 

 to a man who would lay claim to the rank of a sealhunter. The 

 first of them is the ART OF RISING TO THE SURFACE AGAIN by 

 means of the paddle in case of being overturned. This art is 

 but scarcely — if at all — known in Alaska and Labrodor, al- 

 though it may be easily imagined how necessary this capacity 

 for helping himself must be to a hunter who desires to be 

 independent of the assistance of companions. The other ad- 

 vantage is the art just mentioned of CAPTURING BY MEANS OF THE 

 LARGE HARPOON AND BLADDER which can not be properly learned 

 without being educated as a kayaker from early boyhood. It 



