1EAL-HUNTING AMONG THE FLOES 



harpoon has struck, the hunter leaps to his feet and 

 rams a sharpened stake into the ice, and on this he 

 loops his line: he is just in time to brace himself 

 when the line draws tight and the seal stops in its 

 career with a jerk. In less time than it takes to tell 

 the Eskimo is calmly hauling his catch on to the 

 ice ; and when he has done it, and stoops to take his 

 drink of blood, he has done a thing that neither you 

 nor I could ever learn to do half as cleverly. 



Otok-hunting is just as great a test of patience 

 and cunning as the tedious waiting with its glorious 

 climax at the blow-hole. An 6tok is a lazy thing, a 

 seal that basks upon the ice in the warm spring sun ; 

 but it is very much alive, and ever on the alert though 

 it lies for hours as motionless as a log, and at the 

 least sign or sound of strange movement off it flaps 

 to the water with grotesque haste. It is important 

 to see an 6tok from as far off as possible, and with 

 this idea in mind some of the Eskimos have copied the 

 settler folks and are the proud owners of telescopes. 

 As a matter of fact the Eskimo eye is quite good 

 enough for all the ordinary purposes of an Eskimo 

 hunter's life, and I fancy the telescopes are really 

 more ornamental than practically useful. The Eskimo 

 is a cunning fellow : no sooner does he see an otok 

 than he returns to his tent and arms himself with a 

 shield of white calico doubtless, years ago, it was 

 white sealskin stretched on crossed sticks. The 

 wary hunter crawls along so cautiously that the otok 

 never notices the slowly-moving white shield, and 

 knows nothing until the hunter, cramped and hardly 

 daring to breath, is near enough to let drive with his 

 keen harpoon or his deadly rifle. 



As time passes and the ice breaks the spring 



245 



