130 MODES OF CAPTURING THE SEAL, 



and long side-laths, with cross-ribs like hoops, but not quite 

 round. The whole is covered with seal-skin. In the mid- 

 dle of this covering is a round aperture, supported with a 

 strong rim of wood or bone ; the Esquimaux slip into this 

 cavity, their feet resting on a board covered with skin. The 

 lance, harpoon and tackle are arranged before the boatman. 

 He uses his oar or paddle with wonderful dexterity, striking 

 the water on either side alternately, by which means he can 

 proceed at the rate of sixty miles or more in a day. In this 

 frail bark, which only those accustomed to such can manage, 

 the Greenlander fears no storm or the roughest breakers, 

 so long as he retains his oar, which enables him to sit up- 

 right ; and if overturned, while the head is downward in the 

 water with one stroke he can recover himself. 



"Train'd with inimitable skill to float, 

 Each balanced in his bubble of a boat, 

 With dexterous paddle steering through the spray. 

 With pois'd harpoon to strike his plunging prey, 

 As though the skill, the seaman, oar and dart 

 Were one compacted body, and one heart, 

 While instinct, motion, pulse, empowered to ride — 

 A human nautilus upon the tide." 



As the natives are ever on the watch, as soon as they dis- 

 cover a herd of seals — driven usually by stormy weather in- 

 to some creek or inlet — they endeavor to cut off their retreat, 

 and frighten them under water by shouting, clapping, and 

 throwing stones. As, however, the seals must speedily come 

 to the surface of the water to breathe, they are surrounded 

 and killed with long or short lances. 



There are various modes of capturing seals on the ice. 

 As the animals make holes in it for breathing, the Esqui- 

 maux seat themselves on stools, watching their appearance at 

 the apertures, and rarely fail to harpoon them, enlarging the 

 holes to withdraw and kill them. Sometimes, on seeing a 

 seal lying on the ice near a hole, the Greenlander slides along 



