276 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



and so they have to gnaw their way up. The teeth of a 

 seal look like the teeth of a dog, but they are far enough 

 forward in his jaw so he can gnaw with them almost as 

 well as a rat can gnaw. In the manner of a rat making 

 a hole through a board the seal now makes a hole through 

 the ice just big enough to stick his nostrils up against 

 to breathe. In some cases this hole is not over half 

 an inch in diameter, although it may be an inch or more. 



Now the seal is confined to this vicinity. He may dive 

 down fifty feet or so, searching for a fish or something 

 else to eat, but he has to come up to the hole every now 

 and then for a breath of air. 



For convenience, or possibly because he has nothing 

 better to do, the seal will make in the vicinity half a dozen 

 or a dozen other breathing holes exactly like the first 

 As the ice gradually thickens to six inches, a foot, two 

 feet, four feet, and even six or seven feet at a maximum, 

 the seal has to keep busy gnawing away to keep open 

 as many of the holes as he desires. His object is to be 

 able to press his nostrils against a little hole at the very 

 surface of the ice. To do this, he has to make in connec- 

 tion with each hole a cigar-shaped vertical chamber big 

 enough to admit his whole body. This must mean a 

 great deal of work, but perhaps it helps him to pass the 

 time away. 



Soon after the autumn freeze-up, the snow is bound to 

 come and cover up all the breathing holes. This is 

 evidently what the seal wants, for in rare instances some 

 eddy of wind, caused perhaps by an ice hummock not far 

 away, will keep free of snow the particular spot where 

 the seal has one of his holes. Such a hole he always 

 abandons because the freezing is more rapid where the 

 ice is not blanketed by snow, or else perhaps because he 



