after it, and ate it there, where a moment 



307 

 before it had been blinking sleepily in the m , . 



morning sun. * 



The presence of his favorite game in the =s _ £= ^— ^^^.^L^ 



strange land turned Matwock's thoughts 



from the village of men into which he had 



blundered with the iceberg. No boats came 



out or in to disturb him, so he kept his 



abode in the ice cavern, which was safe and 



warm, and out of which he wandered daily 



up and down the rocky coast. 



A few mother seals had their young here, 



hidden on the great ice-floes, which were 



fast anchored to the rocks and shoals. The 



little seals are snow-white at first — for kind 



Nature forgets none of her helpless children 



— the better to hide on the white ice on 



which they are born. Only their eyes and 



the tips of their noses are black, and at 



the first alarm they close their eyes and lie 



very still, so that it is almost impossible to 



see them. Even when you stand over them 



they look like rough lumps of snow-ice. If 



they have time they even hide the black tips 



of their noses in their white fur coats ; and 



