SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD 



THE SEAL-HUNT FAILS COMPLETELY 



July 19th. — In the afternoon of the 19th, Ajako and Bosun 

 return after three days of seal-hunting, which has brought no 

 result. They have been right across the fjord and followed the 

 coast right down to Cape Bryan, where they were stopped by a 

 broad open ocean trending far seaward due north, and then due 

 west in the direction of Black Horn Cliffs. No seals were to 

 be seen here, probably because they kept further seaward. But 

 they have seen many along land in the broad water-belt. Here 

 they had shot six, the very number I had mentioned as a safe- 

 guard for the homeward journey ; but every one had dived to 

 the bottom like a stone. 



The habits of the seals of this fjord — or perhaps on the 

 coasts of North Greenland generally — are so different from 

 what is known in other places in Greenland, that we were 

 landed in a very serious position. Everywhere the seals at this 

 warm summer-time will crawl up on the ice, and a sure aim 

 gives an easy catch ; in that way we got our seals by the Flesh- 

 pot and Dragon Point. But those which must now be shot in 

 the water will sink at once because they are so thin. It is pos- 

 sible that the water-filled surface which constitutes rough and 

 slippery ice does not tempt them to come up, wherefore they 

 must fall back on the open water either at sea or along land or 

 ice. But under similar ice conditions and at the same time of 

 the year in Independence Fjord in 1912, and by the previously 

 described sealing-grounds by Marshall Bay and Renslaer Har- 

 bour, we saw the seals crawling up. A water pantomime like 

 the one here being performed along the land, none of us have 

 previously witnessed. From our camp we have shot altogether 

 three, but they also went to the bottom without a movement, 

 and in spite of all efforts it proved impossible to fish them out of 

 the turbid water. It was therefore essential that we should now 

 take stock of the provisions which we have deposited, and also 

 of those which we have acquired during recent hunts ; we shall 

 scarcely be able to get more, but we ought to have sufficient, 

 even though it be the smallest possible sufficiency. 



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