 
of patience and some excellent mimicry is displayed in killing 
seals at this time. When one is seen lying near its hole, the 
native approaches as near as possible, say Within 500 yards, 
when he lies down and crawls and wriggles the remainder of 
the distance. During this operation great care is taken not to 
excite the animal's suspicion, and an advance is only made 
when the seal's head is down. A seal appears to sleep in short 
naps, and raises his head every few minutes; when he does so 
the hunter immediately hides his face, and with his arms and 
legs imitates the motions of a seal scratching or lazily rolling, 
at the same time mimicking the blowing and other noises made 
by the seals; by so doing he soon lulls suspicion, and is enabled 
to crawl a little closer. By advancing in this manner he can 
get within fifty yards of his prey, when he shoots it. When the 
native has no gun, he continues to close in until sufficiently 
near to kill with his lance; this must, however, be done quickly, 
for the seal displays wonderful agility in falling into the water 
when disturbed. 
Early in May the few families who intend to pass the 
summer inland leave the coast and hurry to their destination 
before the sun melts the snow. The greater number pass the 
early summer on the coast. 
With the advent of June the snow begins to melt, and soon 
after the land becomes bare. This is a period of trial for the 
house-wife; the warmth causes the roofs of the snow-houses to 
leak, and they can only be kept up by a daily patching with 
loose snow, While the ground is not sufficiently bare for the erec- 
tion of the summer tent; it becomes a constant fight with the 
heat and water, terminated only by the roof falling in. The 
smell and general filthiness of one of these deserted spring 
houses is better left to the imagination; it is indeed beyond 
description. During this time, while the ice on the coast still 
holds, the men are busily employed killing seals, whose skins 
are needed to repair the summer tent and to cover the Eskimo's 
