METHODS OF CAPTTjRE SEAL-NETS, 523 



chaDge or improvement; and though some other means of 

 capture have been added, "siz, the rifle and the twine-made net, 

 there is some reason to believe that the abolition of the ancient 

 manner of hunting seals would jn-ove fatal to the welfare, if not 

 the existence, of the present race of inhabitants. Still more in- 

 dispensable to them is the kayak or skin canoe, fitted out espe- 

 cially for this pursuit. It measures upwards of 18 feet in length 

 and about 2 feet in breadth, and weighs about 55 pounds, so that 

 the man on landing can take it in one hand and carry it along 

 with him up the beach. . . . When the kayaker intends to 

 strike a seal with his harpoon, he advances within a distance 

 of about 25 feet from it, then throws the harpoon by means of 

 a piece of wood adapted to sujjport the harpoon while he takes 

 aim with it, and called the 'thrower'. At the same time he 

 loosens the bladder and throws it off likewise. The animal 

 struck dives, carrying away the coiled-up line with great speed ; 

 if in this moment the line happens to become entangled with 

 some part of the kayak, or if the bladder is not discharged quick 

 enough, the kayaker in most cases will be capsized without any 

 chance of saving his life by rising again. But if the oiieration 

 has been entirely successful, the bladder moving on the surface 

 of the water indicates the track of the animal underneath it, 

 and the hunter follows it with the large lance which he throws 

 like the harpoon when the seal appears above the water, repeat- 

 ing the same several times, the lance always disengaging itself 

 and floating on the surface. Finally, when the convulsions of 

 the animal are subsiding, he rows close up to it and kills it 

 with the small hand-spear or knife." * 



2. By means of nets. The capture of Seals in nets is mainly 

 limited to the periodical visits of the migratory species to the 

 shore, and occurs chiefly during spring and fall. At some 

 points on the northern shores of Europe, and particularly in the 

 Gulf of Bothnia, the Caspian Sea, and Lake Baikal, sealing 

 nets have been in use for centuries, and are set either from the 

 shore or beneath the ice. Cneiff, in his account of Seal-hunt- 

 ing in East Bothnia,t published originally in 1757, describes, 







* Danish Greenland, its People and its Products, 1877, pp. 113, 114. 



t Bericht vom Seekiilberfange in Ostbothuien. Vom Provincialschaffner, 

 Ilerru Joliann David Kneill', eingegeben. Der Kouigi. Schwedischen Akad. 

 der Wissonsch. Abhandl., aus der Natnrlehre, Hanshaltungskunst und Me- 

 chauik, auf das Jahr 1757. Aus dem Schwedischen iibersetzt, von Abra- 

 ham Gotthelf Kiistner, etc. 19 Band, 1759, pp. 171-186. This is a detailed 

 and very interesting account of Seal-hunting as practised in the Gulf of 

 Bothnia about the middle of the last century. 



