150 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA. 



its centre is marked by erecting a little pinnacle of snow 

 directly above it. 



This done, a long and tedious wait follows, during 

 which time the patient hunter often suffers much from 

 the cold, for he is obliged to remain quite still, not un- 

 commonly from early morning until evening. In order 

 to keep the feet from freezing, while thus remaining for 

 hours upon the snow, a deer-skin bag is commonly used 

 to stand in. 



During the interval of the seal's absence from home 

 the doorway becomes frozen over, and it is on account 

 of this fact that the hunter is made aware of its return, 

 for when the seal comes back to its hole and finds it 

 crusted over, it at once commences to blow upon the 

 ice to melt it. This is the hunter's long-desired signal, 

 and the moment he hears it he places the point of hi& 

 harpoon at the mark on the snow, and thrusts the 

 weapon vertically down into the hole, almost invariably 

 with deadly effect. The seal, thus harpooned in the 

 head, is instantly killed, and is then hauled out by the 

 line attached to the spear. 



Some seasons, when the ice is covered by a great 

 depth of snow, the dogs are not able to scent the seals' 

 houses, and then the Eskimo has to depend upon other 

 sources for food, or else go on short rations. 



In the spring, as the snow disappears, the seals' win- 

 ter quarters are demolished, and they themselves are 

 exposed to view. Then the Eskimo is obliged to resort 

 to other methods of getting at them. When one is 

 observed, the direction of the wind is first noted, then 

 the hunter, keeping himself to leeward of the seal, walks 

 to within about a quarter of a mile of it ; but beyond 



