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for hours, watching the bubble of air that warns him of the 

 seal coming to breathe. And scarcely has the animal raised its 

 nostrils to the surface before the hunter's harpoon is deeply 

 buried in its body. This sport is not without danger that adds 

 to the excitement of the succes. The line attached to the point 

 of the harpoon is passed in a loop around the hunters loins, 

 and, should the animal he has struck be a large seal or walrus, 

 woe betide him if he does not instantly plant his feet in the 

 notch cut for this purpose in the ice, and throw himself into 

 such a position that the strain of the line is as nearly as pos- 

 sible brought into direction of the length of the spine of his 

 back and the axis of his lower limbs. A transverse pull of the 

 powerful beast would double him up across the air hole and 

 perhaps break his back, or if the opening be large, as it often 

 is when spring is advanced, he would be dragged under water 

 and drowned". 



(2) THE SEALS OF ALASKA. Jacobsen has informed me, 

 that «Maivlak» does not appear to be the name of a certain 

 species of seals but rather to signify the skin of larger seals 

 im general, that are prepared for covers of umiaks and kayaks, 

 for soles of boots etc. The hooded seal of Greenland, he adds, 

 does not occur in north western America where tho Fur-seal 

 occupies its place. 



(3) HARPOOiNS AND OTHER IMPLEMENTS. Petersen relates 

 that in Smith's- Sound the lance without barbs, called '^angegiija» 

 is the only weapon employed in bear hunting (with dogs). The 

 walrus is attacked, when sleeping on the ire, or from the edge 

 of the ice, when it emerges from the water, first with a har- 

 poon to which is fixed a hunting line, afterwards killing it with 

 the angeguja. 



Dr. Boas gives a very plain description of hunting on the ice 

 in Baffin's land. A light harpoon is used, called unang. Be- 

 fore getting iron rods it consisted of a shaft having at one end 

 an ivory point firmly attached by thongs and rivets, the point 



