CHAPTER XXIII 



AFTER THE SEAL AND THE 

 WALRUS 



The pinnipeds The seals and their young Seal-hunting among the 

 Eskimos The seal as a fighter The Eskimos' summer season 

 Varieties of seals Sealing among civilised fleets Methods- 

 Dangers of the work A seal-massacre How the seal-colonies 

 are founded Sea-elephants, sea-lions, and sea-bears The walrus 

 His enemies A big catch Modern methods of walrus-hunting. 



THE pinnipeds or fin-footed animals, under which 

 head are included seals, sea-lions and walruses, are 

 even less like fish than are the cetacea, for they 

 possess four legs or members which serve as such ; they 

 are generally regarded as the link between the land and 

 the water mammals ; but as they spend a good part of 

 their lives in the water, and are shot or clubbed or har- 

 pooned for the sake of their skin, fat, etc., we shall devote 

 a chapter to these remarkable animals. 



A whole book might easily be written about the charac- 

 teristics and uses of the seal, for its many peculiarities 

 seem to render it a thing apart from the rest of the 

 animal kingdom. It is born on land, and is even obliged 

 to learn to swim before it can trust itself in deep water. 

 Its land movements are certainly neither swift nor grace- 

 ful, for its funny little feet are hampered by their webs, 



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