HOW I LEARNED TO HUNT SEALS 263 



porting, nothing was so important as to learn seal hunt- 

 ing, for then I could supply myself with food, fuel, 

 clothing and, if need be, material for a tent or a boat. 



It is said that experience is the b. t teacher; but she 

 is a slow and painful teacher. Any one at all intelligent 

 or thoughtful can learn without experience, or rather 

 from the experience of others. That is why we have so 

 many schools and that is why they are so useful. I am 

 a great believer in schools and like to learn things by 

 being taught. I therefore asked the Eskimos to explain 

 to me just how they hunted seals. They told me clearly 

 and fully. If I were to repeat what they said, I should 

 give a description of seal hunting from which any one 

 could learn the principles so well that he could hunt seals 

 successfully the first time he found himself in the polar 

 regions. But I found later that while the Eskimos had 

 told me the whole truth they had told me a great deal 

 more than the truth. They are a kind and charming 

 people; but they are very superstitious, and about half 

 the things they told me I would have to do in order to 

 hunt seals successfully I have since found were pure 

 superstition. Seal hunting is very much simpler than any 

 Eskimo will ever tell you; for he tells you how he hunts 

 seals, and half the things he does while hunting are done 

 merely because his father and grandfather before him 

 always did them that way. 



So instead of telling how Eskimos hunt seals, I shall 

 tell how I do it and how the other white men do it who 

 (on my various expeditions) have accompanied me when 

 we were living on seals. 



On my first expedition (1906-07) I was in a fishing 

 country and never saw a caribou or a seal. On my 

 second expedition (1908-12) I was nearly the whole time 



