CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 



453 



solid ice, and the seal would be away in an instant. If the blow is well-aimed 

 and at the right instant, it pierces the head of the unseen seal, who instantly 

 dives, and runs out the eight or ten fathoms of line which, fastened to the har- 

 poon, is tied around the waist of the Innuit. The snow is then dug away, the 

 breathing-hole enlarged, so as to permit the seal to be drawn through. 



DOGS AND BEAK. 



Tlie dogs also take special delight in hunting the bear. When a team scent 

 a bear it is impossible to restrain them. Once when Hall was on a joui-ney a 

 bear with her cub was seen on the ice at the foot of a high mountain. When 

 within two hundred yards^ the leading dog was cut loose, and he made straight 

 for the bear ; one by one the others were set free from the sledge, and all were 

 in'hot pursuit. One dog set upon the cub, and finally separated it from its 

 mother ; another caught the dam ; and both rolled down a precipice, up which 

 the bear scrambled again and escaped, for it was so steep that the dogs could 

 not follow. All the dogs, eleven in number, now set upon the cub. Hall com- 

 ing up, the young brute made at him ; he ran it through with his spear. He 

 expected that the Innuits would applaud his courage and dexterity ; but they 

 shook their heads and said nothing at the time. They soon showed the utmost 

 determination to leave the neighborhood, and explained by saying that the old 

 bear would come back at night, smell the blood of the cub, and become en- 

 raged, and kill them all. The Innuits avoid killing a young bear until they 

 have dispatched the old one, for they say that knowing the death of her young 

 makes her a hundred times more terrible. Althous^h the liver of the seal is 



