CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 



451 



AND SEAL. 



with all his weight upon the roof of the dome, crushes it in, and with his paw 

 seizes the young seal, who was quietly asleep upon the ice-shelf. The cunning 

 bear is not always satisfied with the little infant seal, but uses it as a bait to 

 catch its mother. Having caught the young one, and holding it fast by the 

 hind flippers, the bear scrapes away all the snow, and lets the young seal paddle 

 about in the water; its cries draw the mother to the hole, and within reach 

 of the bear's paw, when one grab is given, and the anxious mother is secured. 

 At all events the Innuits practise this sort of strategy with the seal, and they 

 declare that they have learned it from the bear. 



The bear is to the Innuits the embodiment of all wisdom. They tell sto- 

 ries of his sagacity which are hard to believe. Thus they say that when he 

 sees a walrus basking upon the ice at the foot of a high cliff, he mounts to the 

 summit of the cliff, and picking up a big stone flings it down with perfect aim 

 upon the head of the walrus and crushes its thick skull. If it should happen 

 that the walrus is only stunned, the bear crawls down the cliff, picks up a stone, 

 and with it hammers away at the head of the walrus until the skull is broken. 

 This story of the Innuits needs confii-mation, though Hall seems to credit it. 



The dog is essential to the existence of the Innuits. As they have never 

 domesticated the reindeer, without the dog they could not travel from place to 

 place, which they are obliged to do in order to follow the migrations of the seal 

 and walrus, upon which they mainly subsist. Without him they could never 

 find out the holes in the ice through which the seal comes up to breathe in the 

 winter. Their doo-s seem to be much more intelligent and docile than those of 

 any other of the Polar tribes. When one is found to be more than usually in- 

 telligent he is carefully trained as a seal-dog. When the dog scents a seal- 

 hole, which he does though it is covered deep under the snow, he unerringly 

 follows the scent to the very spot. 



The Innuit proceeds to " prospect " by driving the slender spear through 

 the snow until he finds the small opening in the ice which leads to the main 

 hole. He then withdraws the spear, taking the utmost care not to disturb the 

 snow, and seats himself close by to await the coming of the seal. He watches 

 for hours, and sometimes for days, before he hears the welcome " blow." At 



