° THE CRESTED SEAL. 507 
his lances, and which indicate the position of any Seal or other animal that he may 
strike, and also serve to tire the wounded prey, and enable the hunter to repeat his 
blow. Even the teeth are pressed into his service, and are used as convenient heads 
for his spears. 
In the preparation of the Seal skin for civilized nations it is needful to remove the 
long coarse hairs, and to leave only the soft woolly fur adherent to the skin. The 
process is very simple, consisting in heating the skin, and then scraping it while hot with 
a wooden knife. 
The colour of this creature’s fur is, when adult, a dark blue-black upon the back, 
fading to a yellowish-white on the under portions of the body. A number of large grey 
patches are irregularly scattered over the body, and in the centre of each patch there is a 
dark spot. The head, the tail, and the feet, are black. In the young animal the colours 
are not of the same cast, being during the first year of a slate- -grey upon the back and 
silvery-white below, darkening i in the second year to a brownish- grey along the spine. 
It is a moderately large animal, being from ten to twelve feet in length “when adult, and 
stout in proportion. 
The Crested Seal is found spread over the coasts of Southern Greenland, and is in the 
habit of reposing much upon ice islands, caring comparatively little for ordinary land. It 
also frequents the shores of Northern America. From September to March it is found 
in Davis's Straits, but leaves that locality for the purpose of producing and rearing its 
young, and returns again in June, together with its offspring, in a very bare and poor 
condition, About July it takes another excursion, and employs its time in recovering the 
health and strength which it had lost during the period of its former absence, so that in 
September it is very fat, and altogether in excellent condition, 
By the native Greenlanders it is termed “ Neitsersoak.” 
The natives of the localities which are inhabited by this animal are in the habit of 
employing two methods for their capture, the one being only a question of patience 
between the man and the Seal, and the other a fair measurement of human reason against 
sealish sagacity ; the former generally, but not always, proving the superior. The two 
modes are as follows. 
The Seals are in the habit of making, or preserving in some way, certain round holes in 
the ice, which communicate with the water, and which serve them as doors through which 
they can enter or leave the water without being forced to crawl to the edge of the ice-field. 
It seems wonderful that the animals should be able to crawl up the steep and perpen- 
dicular sides of these holes, which are sometimes three or four feet in depth, but they 
manage to perform this feat with entire ease. 
Taking advantage of these Seal-holes, the hunter shapes his course towards them, and 
according to the locality or the bent of his own genius, has recourse to one or other of the 
established methods by which Seals are killed. The easiest, but at the same time the 
tardiest and stupidest plan, is to build a kind of barricade of snow and ice at some 
distance from the Seal-holes, and to lie there concealed until the animal emerges from the 
sea, and makes its appearance upon the ice-field. As soon as it has travelled to some 
little distance from its spot of refuge, the hunter seizes the opportunity to inflict a fatal 
wound, and then uses his best endeavours to prevent his powerful prey from regaining 
its familiar element. 
Should the Seal ever reach the ice-hole, the entire labour of the day is lost, for the 
unsuccessful hunter is not only disappointed by the escape of his intended victim, but 
has also the mortifiction of seeing every Seal upon the ice-field scouring towards the 
ice-holes, and disappearing therein, no more to venture upon open ice that day. 
The second mode of Seal killing is much more sportsmanlike, and needs not the 
long and wearisome watch behind the icy barrier. 
Leaving his sledge and dogs at a distance, but within convenient call, the cautious 
hunter takes his weapons, and proceeds silently and slowly towards the spot where he sees 
a Seal reposing itself upon the ice. As soon as he perceives the animal to betray signs of 
distrust, he drops prostrate upon the ice, and remains motionless until the Seal recovers 
from its alarm, and again composes itself to rest. From this moment, the man is obliged 
