226 TEN YEAES IN SWEDEN. 



fe In many places off these coasts the inhabitants in Feb- 

 ruary and March fit out a small fleet of boats, with iron-shod 

 keels, each provisioned for two or three months for eight 

 men. These boats sail out to sea among the ice islands in 

 search of the grey seal. Three or four boats generally 

 follow each other in case of need in this adventurous 

 chase. When they come to an iceberg, they fasten the 

 boat on its lower side, and then try if they can find any 

 seals on it. 



' ' Such an island of drift ice is often three English miles 

 long, and stands up 20 to 25 feet above the water's edge, 

 and consists of larger and smaller masses of ice drifted 

 together, forming a surface full of holes and cracks. On 

 such an island the grey seal often assemble in large flocks. 

 As soon as the hunters perceive them, they rush up, and 

 with their clubs stun as many as they can before they can 

 creep down into the sea through the holes in the ice. They 

 let the young ones, which are now small, lie, as they will 

 not take to the water by themselves. But if there are many 

 holes in the ice the shooter must creep on his belly within 

 shot and kill the seal with his gun. If it happens that a 

 great many are assembled, and are fighting for places, which 

 is usually the case, there is such a riot and confusion that 

 they take little heed of the shot; and the shooter, who 

 is dressed in seal skin, and moreover imitates beauti- 

 fully the wriggling motions of the seal and their roar- 

 ing cry, can often fire shot after shot, and secure a rich 

 booty." 



This must be a wild exciting chase, and one which I 

 would give much to join in. 



In the Greenland seas they appear to have a far less 

 exciting but no less sure method of killing the seals, for the 

 seal-hunter lies watching by the side of one of these breeding 

 holes in the ice, with a harpoon on a line fastened to a 

 stake stuck into the ice ; and as soon as the seal sticks up 

 his nose through the hole to breathe, the hunter pins him 

 with the harpoon, and after playing him, like an enormous 

 pike, till he is exhausted, draws him up on to the ice. 



