PERSSON "s ADVENTURE. 431 



to any great depth, and when it was compelled to come 

 to the surface to respire, the poor fellow found some 

 relief. Thus the game continued for a while, sometimes 

 the head of the man, and at others that of the seal, 

 appearing above water, until at length the boat with 

 his companions arrived, when an end was presently put 

 to the unequal contest." 



Even if the harpoon line be fastened to the boat, instead 

 of the hunter's arm, which is frequently the case, his life is 

 at times thereby jeopardized ; so at least it would seem by 

 the following story, which several years ago ran the round 

 of the Swedish newspapers : " In one of the small islands 

 of theDalaro SkJirgard (lat. 59)," says the narrator, "there 

 resided, in the year 1832, a very celebrated seal-hunter 

 named Anders Persson, who every spring earned a certain 

 sum of money by the capture of seals amongst the 

 ice-fields of the Baltic. Though frequently exposed to 

 imminent danger, he nevertheless considered death was 

 never so near at hand as when on a sealing-expedition in the 

 vicinity of his own Skargard. At the outermost part of 

 these islands is a rock, where seals are accustomed to resort, 

 and to which he and his neighbours often proceeded for 

 the purpose of shooting those animals. The voyage is 

 usually made in a little boat that will carry at the most two 

 persons. The men on these occasions are provided with a 

 rifle of large calibre, and a ' Skal-jern,' the long line 

 attached to which is secured to the stem of the craft. 

 Thus equipped, Persson started off alone in his little skiff 

 for the rock in question, and when arrived within a short 

 distance, he descried, by the aid of his telescope, a huge 

 seal lying on the upper part of it. Under cover of a pro- 

 jecting crag, he so directed his course as to be concealed 

 from the view of the animal. On reaching the rock, the 

 old man moored his boat to a large detached stone, 

 repeating to himself the old adage ' Secure thy horse 



