8i;al hun'i 



son there are fi-equently to he fonnd anioiii; the hammocks w hat the 

 natives call i'glm, dome-shaped snow honses aliont (> feet In diameter 

 and 2 or 3 feet liigh, with a smooth round hole in the top, and commu- 

 nicating with the water. These are undoubtedly the same as the snow 

 burrows described by Kumlien,' which the female seal builds to bring 

 forth her young in.- They are curious constructions, looking astonish- 

 ingly like a man's work. The natives told me that nets set at these 

 places were for the capture of younu seals (nctyiaru). It appears that 

 these houses are the proiierty of a sin,<ile female only until her y<iiing 

 one is able to take to the water, as a net is ke]it set at one of these 

 holes, as well as I could understand, sometiines capturing several seals. 

 The net is set flat under the hole, the c.irners being drawn out by ends 

 letdown through small holes in a circle round the main oiienini;, through 

 which the net is drawn. A seal risinu to the surface runs his head 

 thnmgh the meshes of the net. The small holes aiul sometimes the 

 middle one are careftdly covered with slabs of snow. 



The ofrtcers of the revenue steamer Conrli,. who made the sledge 

 Journey along the northeast coast of Siberia in the early summer of 

 ISSl, saw seal nets set in this way, flat, under air holes iu the ice, with 

 a hole for each corner of the net. When a seal was caught the net was 

 drawn up thnmgh the middle hole with a hooked pole.^ In IS.s;! they 

 began settingthese netsat roiiit Harrow about March 4, and ]irobably 

 about the same date the .\ear before, though we did uot happen to ob- 

 serve this nu^thod of netting until considerably later. 



In June and .Inly, when tlu' ice becomes rotten and worn into holes, 

 the seals "haul out" to bask in the sun, and are then stalked and shot. 

 They are exceedingly wary at this season. The seal usually taken in 

 the methods above described is the rough or ringed seal (Phoca ftetida), 

 but in 1881 a single male ribbon seal (HistrioiiluxM fasciata) was netted, 

 and in 1882 a native shot (me at the breathing hole, but it was carried 

 away by the current before he could secure it. The natives said that 

 they sometimes caught the harbor seal (P. vitulina) in the shore ni'ts iu 

 Elson Bay. The bearded seal (ErigTiathus barbatus), whose skin is 

 especially prized for making harpoon lines, boot soles, umiak co\ers, 



I, Antic Kfsi'.iri-lii's. pp. 507 and 578. with diagl-ama. 

 per, C'orwiu Kcpnrt. p. 25. 



