THE ESQUIMAUX. 121 
tor the least noise awakens the watchful animals. Sometimes he 
has recourse to stratagem, covers himself with a seal skin, and, 
imitating the movements and gestures of the deceived phoce, 
introduces himself into the midst of the unsuspecting troop. 
We read in the Odyssey how the “ dark-featured hero,” Mene- 
laus, deigned to conceal his royal limbs under a fresh seal-skin, 
in order to surprise Proteus, the infallible seer; and what suffer- 
ings his olfactory organs underwent from the 
“‘ Unsavoury stench of oil and brackish ooze,” 
until the fair sea-nymph Eidothea, whom the gallant chief 
implored in his distress, 
“ With nectar’d drops the sickening sense restor’d.” 
Fortunately for the Esquimaux, his nose is less sensitive than 
that of the son of Atreus, and without ambrosia, he willingly 
dons a disguise which affords his unsophisticated taste the 
pleasure of a theatrical entertainment, combined with the profit 
of a savoury prize. Physical strength, dexterity, caution, 
quickness of eye, and acuteness of hearing, are the indispens- 
able qualities of the Esquimaux, and require to be exercised and 
developed from his tenderest years. The boy of fifteen must 
be as perfect a seal-catcher as his father, and be able to make 
all the instruments necessary for the chase. In these inhospit- 
able regions, every one is obliged to rely upon himself alone ; 
there, where all the powers of the body and mind are tasked to 
the utmost for the mere sustenance of life, weakness and want 
of dexterity must inevitably succumb. 
Besides the savages of the north, the civilised nations also 
give chase to the seals, or rather wage a barbarous war of exter- 
mination against these helpless creatures. Thus, from the year 
1786 to 1833, more than 3,000,000 sea-bears were killed on 
the Pribilow Islands, in Behring’s Sea. At Unalaschka, the chief 
staple-place of the Russian Fur Company, 700,000 skins were 
cast into the water in the year 1803, on the same principle as 
that which induced the Dutch to burn their superfluous nutmegs, 
viz. “not to glut the market.” As a well-merited punishment 
for this stupid slaughter, the products of the chase diminished 
rapidly from that time until within the last few years, when a 
better husbandry has again increased the number of the sea-bears. 
