844 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Advantages of the seal fishery to the Greenlanders. 



avoid the throng, which presses down upon them 

 with irresistible impetuosity; but when the first 

 crowd has passed, great numbers of young ones 

 generally straggle behind, which are easily killed 

 by a slight blow on the nose. 



The inhabitants of Greenland derive the most 

 important advantages from the seal fishery; those 

 animals being indispensably necessary towards 

 their existence. The flesh supplies them with 

 their principal and most palatable food ; the 

 fat furnishes oil for their lamps and fires, and is 

 frequently bartered for other necessaries with the 

 factor ; the fibres of the sinews are better adapted 

 for sewing than either thread or silk ; part of the 

 bladders are used in fishing, as buoys or floats to 

 their harpoons; and the skins are made into cur- 

 tains for tents, clothing, coverings for beds and 

 boats, and thongs and straps of every descrip- 

 tion. Even the blood is not wasted ; for the na- 

 tives boil it with other ingredients as soup. The 

 art of taking seals is the favourite object of the 

 Greenlanders' ambition; and to this they are 

 trained from childhood. By this they are ena- 

 bled to procure a subsistence ; by this they rea- 

 der themselves agreeable to each other, and be- 

 come useful members of the community. 



The season for taking seals in Finland begins 

 when the sea breaks up, and the ice floats in 

 shoals upon the surface. Four or five peasants 

 then go out in a small open boat, and sometime* 

 continue more than a month absent from thyir 



