HOW I LEARNED TO HUNT SEALS 265 



able to kill my first seal. The principle was simple. You 

 had to go on the assumption that the seal would see you 

 when you were far away. Your task was to approach 

 him slowly, crawling along the ice like a seal and 

 making him think all the while that you were another 

 seal. Natkusiak had explained to me both by words and 

 mimicry how this should be done. But I did not want to 

 make any mistake with my first seal, and thinking that 

 possibly the seals themselves might know even better 

 than Natkusiak how a seal acts, I decided to find out from 

 them just how they do act. 



That was a simple matter. The eyesight of seals is 

 not very good, and when they are lying sunning them- 

 selves on the level ice they cannot see you much beyond 

 four hundred yards. With this in mind I watched for 

 seals as we traveled, climbing on top of ice hummocks 

 now and then and examining the ocean with my field 

 glasses. Finally we saw a seal lying on the ice ahead of 

 us. We made camp about half a mile from him. I then 

 went to the top of an ice hummock and studied him 

 carefully through my glasses. Previous to this I had 

 often watched seals and had checked them with my watch 

 to find out how long at a time they sleep. I found that 

 they take short naps, but that their waking spells be- 

 tween the naps are even shorter. I learned that while 

 on top of the ice the average Alaskan seal sleeps about 

 seven times as much as he stays awake. The average 

 length of his naps was about thirty-five seconds and the 

 average length of the waking periods between was about 

 five seconds. 



It may seem strange to those unfamiliar with the lives 

 of the arctic seals that they should sleep so fitfully. 

 Nothing else would do, however. If they slept thirty 



