278 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



as my friend had done and now the two waited for the 

 seal. They also encouraged me to walk around at a con- 

 siderable distance from either of them, stamping on the 

 snow here and there. The idea was to try to scare the 

 seal away from whatever hole he might be using to one or 

 the other of those that were now being watched. 



It may have been that I scared the seal from some dis- 

 tant hole to the one watched by the newcomer, for all 

 of a sudden I saw him come to alert attention. Knowing 

 that the seal was about to come up, I approached stealth- 

 ily to within about ten yards and watched. When a seal 

 is approaching the breathing hole that contains an indi- 

 cator, the wave motion in the water created by his swim- 

 ming will start the indicator trembling while the animal 

 is still some distance off. When he finally comes right 

 into the torpedo-shaped chamber and rises straight up 

 through the water to press his nose against the breathing 

 hole, he touches the lower end of the rod. If it strikes 

 him squarely on the middle of his snout he will lift it up; 

 but if it strikes slantingly, as it nearly always does, then 

 instead of being lifted up, the indicator slips down deeper 

 than before. Just at that moment the hunter drives his 

 harpoon down alongside of the indicator. If he hits the 

 hole in the ice he hits the seal, for his nose is at that 

 moment in the hole. 



In this case the hunter made no slip and in a moment 

 he was struggling with a powerful animal that had been 

 harpooned in the side of the neck. The other hunter 

 rushed up and by the braided sinew rope one of them 

 held the animal while the other got his ice chisel and 

 enlarged the hole until it was something over a foot in 

 diameter, or large enough to pull the seal out. While 



