CHAPTER II 



HOW I LEARNED TO HUNT SEALS 



Some Eskimos make a living almo. » • : < -.ly by hunting 

 seals, and I have had to do the same occasionally. The 

 seal is the most useful of animals because it furnishes 

 all 3^cu really need for living in comfort. 



The lean and fat of the seal, make together a diet upon 

 which whole groups of Eskimos live in good health to 

 a reasonably old age. On some of my later expeditions 

 my white companions and I have lived exclusively on 

 seals for months at a time. Some people do not like the 

 meat at first just because it differs considerably from any 

 meat with which they are familiar; but you gradually 

 get to like it, and the longer you live on it the better you 

 like it. You may be dreadfully tired of seal after three 

 weeks, or even three months, but I never saw any one 

 who was tired of it after three years. It is in living with 

 the Eskimos on seals as it is in living with' the Chinese 

 on rice that no matter how much you dislike it at first, 

 you are likely eventually to become as fond of it as they 

 are themselves. 



In addition to giving meat and fat for food the seal 

 furnishes fat for fuel. Many thousands of Eskimos have 

 no other fuel in winter, and it does them very well. 

 They burn the fat in stone lamps made for the purpose. 

 These are carefully trimmed and should not smoke. A 

 woman is considered a very bad housekeeper if you can 

 notice the smell of lamp smoke in her house or see 



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