38 ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY 



There are instances, in which whole tribes of human 

 beings depend, for tlie supply of all their wants, on one 

 or two species of animals. The Greenlandcr, and the Eski- 

 maux of Labrador, placed in a region of almost constant 

 snow and ice, where intense cold renders the soil incapable 

 of producing any articles of human sustenance, are fed, 

 clothed, and lodged from the seal. They pursue, indeed, 

 the rein-deer, other land animals, and birds ; but seyl-hunt- 

 ing is their grand occupation. The flesh and blood of the 

 seal are their food 5 the blubber, or subcutaneous stratum 

 of fat, affords them the means of procuring light and heat; 

 the bones and teeth are converted into weapons, instru- 

 ments, and various ornaments ; and the skin not only sup- 

 plies them with clothing, but with the coverings of their huts 

 and canoes. The stomach, intestines, and bladder, when 

 dried, are turned to many and various uses: in their nearly- 

 transparent dry state, they supply the place of glass in the 

 windows ; they form bladders for their harpoons, arrows, 

 nets, &c.; when sewed together, they make under-garments, 

 curtains, &c. ; and are employed in place of iinen, on many- 

 occasions. Thus every part of the animal is converted, 

 by a kind of domestic anatomy, to useful purposes; even 

 to the tendons, which, when split and dried, form excellent 

 threads. To the pursuit of the seal, the canoes, instru- 

 ments, weapons, clothing, education, and whole manners of 

 life of the Greenlanders, are adapted. As a plentiful sup- 

 ply of these animals enables them to dispense with every 

 thing else, and as without these they could procure neither 

 dwellings, clothes, nor food, it naturally follows that the 

 great aim of education is to make the boys expert seal- 

 hunters ; and that dexterity in this pursuit is the greatest 



blameless lives, in renouncing all force and violence, in endeavouring to fulfil 

 literally the Gospel precepts of peace and good- will, in active benevolence, 

 in unremitted personal as well as pecuniary co-operation in all measures 

 calculated to diminish the amount of human misery and suffering, and to im- 

 prove the condition of their fellow-creatures. These truly Christian merits 

 would redeem much heavier sins than an adherence to the plain and simple 

 garb and the unceremouious language of George Fox and William Pcnn. 



