THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 55 



was steering in a wrong direction ; for fear 

 the other sloop shoukl be before us, we then 

 hastily lowered my boat and rowed straight to 

 the seal. On nearing the phoca, he appeared 

 quite awake, and was looking nervously about 

 him every two or three minutes, so we rowed 

 round so as to get between him and the sun, 

 which, although it was exactly midnight, was 

 high and bright in the heavens ; this dazzled 

 his eyes so completely, that although he was 

 wide awake, and looked straight in our di- 

 rection repeatedly, he could see nothing for 

 the glare, and he lay still until the boat ap- 

 proached to within about fifty yards, when my 

 bullet perforated his cerebellum, and he sank 

 motionless on the ice. 



The pursuit of the great Spitzbergen seal 

 {JPhoca barhata), although it lacks the wild ex- 

 citement of the chase of the sea-horse, is a very 

 delightful amusement. The great seal will 

 never allow himself to be " caught napping; " 

 I do not think I ever saw a sleeping seal 

 which did not, about once in every three or 

 four minutes, raise his head from the ice, and 

 look uneasily around, so that he cannot be 

 harpooned in his sleep, like his more lethargic 

 congener the walrus. I imagine this greater 



E 4 



