66 MARINE AND AQUATIC TEESPASSERS. 



was five feet or so in diameter, and two-and-a-half feet 

 high, with a depth of snow above it of some five feet. 

 The platform of sea-ice was where the parent Seal gave 

 birth to its young, and afterwards nursed it. On one 

 side was the seal-hole, filled with sea- water, which was 

 within two inches of the top of the platform." 



In all probability, the igloo is retained in its shape 

 by the animal warmth and hot breath of the young. 

 We shall return to the Seal's igloo when we come to 

 treat of the polar bear as a trespasser. The little 

 animal which was thus used as a bait wherewith to 

 catch its mother, was afterwards killed in the usual 

 fashion i.e., pressing it strongly on the back with the 

 whole weight of the body, and so stopping its breath. 

 This is done for the purpose of saving the blood, 

 which, -when drunk warm, is one of the greatest luxuries 

 of the Esquimaux, and even appreciated by Capt. Hall 

 himself. 



See how many laws of Nature are utilized to pre- 

 serve the life of a baby Seal. 



First, there is the fact that water, when frozen, 

 expands in size, and therefore floats upon the yet un- 

 frozen water. Did it contract instead of expanding, the 

 whole of both polar seas would have been by this time 

 nothing but a solid mass of ice. If the ice had sunk 

 instead of floated, it would have congealed the water 

 around it, and so added to its bulk as well as to its 

 weight. Nor would it ever have been thawed 

 again. 



Water is a very bad conductor of heat ; so bad, 

 indeed, that if a vessel be filled with water at thirty- 

 four degrees, and a red-hot lump of iron plunged 



