42 THE LOOK-OUT. 



CHAP. IV. 



Crow s-nest. Look-out. First &quot;Walrus seen. Find them 

 very shy. Great Ice-pack. Two &quot;Walruses shot. Lay- 

 to in a dense Fog. Wreck of a Sloop in the Ice. Cure 

 for frost-bitten Feet. Sketch of the Spitzbergen Wal 

 rus Hunter. Profits of the Trade. Truck System. 

 Cold. Chilblains. Seal-shooting on the Ice. Method 

 of hunting the Great Seal. Dimensions of Great Seal. 

 Seal-shooting in the Water. 



IN a brig like Ericson s there is always a 

 &quot; crow s-nest &quot; (a contrivance in the shape of 

 a cask, large enough for a man to get into, 

 and made either of wood or canvass) fixed at 

 the main-topgallant-masthead ; but in a small 

 vessel, such as we had, the look-out man simply 

 sits on the main-gaff or the topsail-yard. Prom 

 our topsail-yard, with a good telescope, we 

 could see a single seal on white ice in a clear 

 day about four miles off ; and from a crow s- 

 nest as high as Ericson s I believe about double 

 that distance a prodigious advantage for the 

 larger vessel. As may be supposed, it is rather 

 a cold position than otherwise, that on the top- 



