84 CAPTURE OF THE 



time." The existence of this tender point was well 

 known to the ancients, and is thus expressed by 

 Oppian : 



Non hami penetrant phocas, saevique tridentes 

 In caput incutient, et circum tempora pulsant. 

 Nam subita percunt capitis per vulnera morte. 



When Seals are observed to be making their 

 escape into the water, before a boat reaches 

 the ice, the sailors give a loud continued shout, on 

 wnich their victims are sometimes deluded by the 

 amazement of a sound so uncommon, and delay 

 their retreat until arrested by the fatal blows of their 

 enemies. 



Such are the expedients had recourse to among 

 civilized nations ; and we shall now advert shortly 

 to the methods practised by the rude tribes in the 

 neighbourhood of the pole. 



The Greenlanders have three ways of catching 

 Seals ; either individually, each in " his bubble of 

 a boat ;" or in company, by the Clapper-hunt ; or 

 in winter on the ice. As the first method is chiefly 

 practised against that one which is styled the Green- 

 land-Seal, we shall postpone its description till we 

 come to the account of that animal. The other 

 methods are practised indifferently against all kinds 

 of Seals. The Clapper-hunt, as it is called, is pro- 

 secuted by numbers in concert. As the natives are 

 ever on the watch, so soon as they discover a 

 hard, driven, usually by stormy weather, into some 



