196 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTI 



I need hardly say that young seal-hunting 

 with clubs did not attract me. On one occasion, 

 however, I encountered a considerable group of 

 Greenland seals, and I permitted my Norwegians 

 to kill several of them in order to study their 

 methods. There were young seals with grey 

 and black spotted skins, and several groups of 

 old males, the marks on whose backs resembled 

 either a saddle or a harp. The English call 

 these the saddle-back or harp seal. 



We were coasting the eastern side of Jan 

 Mayen Island on June 22, 1909, when the 

 Captain, from the crow's-nest, sighted ahead an 

 ice-floe. About midday we encountered the 

 first ice drifts, and saw several seals in the 

 water. The ice rapidly thickened, and from 

 aloft the Captain announced the presence of a 

 large group of seals amid the floes. I entered 

 a boat and prepared for sport. We quickly 

 arrived at the spot where the seals were as- 

 sembled ; there were thousands of them scattered 

 everywhere over the ice in groups more or less 

 numerous. Two or three young ones were to 

 be seen on each of the smaller floes, while on 

 the larger ones were hundreds of old Greenland 

 seals, easily recognised because of their black 

 heads, their white bodies, marked on the back 

 with a ' V,' the point of which divided the head. 





