126 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
when the hunting and trapping are resumed and continued urtil the 
sun in April renders the fur too harsh and brittle to be of value. 
The hunting of seals, whales, and walrus is conducted in a variety 
of ways, according to the season. 
Each year about the first of September the hunters on the coast of 
Norton sound begin to overhaul their seal nets, repair broken or weak 
places, and rig them with sinkers and floats. The nets used are from 
10 to 15 fathoms in length and trom 14 to 2 fathoms in depth, made 
from rawhide, with a mesh large enough to admit easily the head of a 
seal; they are buoyed with wooden floats, or sometimes with inflated 
bladders; the floats are frequently made in the form of sea fowls or 
the heads of seals. The lower side of the net is strung with sinkers 
of stone, bone, or ivory, and is anchored at each end by a large stone 
tied with a heavy rawhide cord. These nets work precisely like the 
gill nets used for salmon fishing, and are very ettective. 
By the middle of September fur seals of two or three species begin to 
come in shore and pass about the rocky points or around reefs which 
guard the entrances to the bays and coves which they are in the habit 
of entering. The nets are watched by the owners, and when a seal is 
eaught the hunter goes out in his kaiak and brains it with a club or 
stone, fashioned for the purpose; then if the net has been damaged it is 
repaired and reset. 
During the dark nights of midwinter seals are netted beneath the 
ice. The blowholes of the seals are located during the day; at night 
the hunters go out and make four holes in the ice, in the form of a 
square, at equal distances from the seal hole; a square net is then 
placed under the ice by means of a long pole and a cord, so arranged as 
to cover the access to the hole from below, and held in place by cords 
passing up through the holes in the ice. When the seal rises to breathe 
it becomes entangled in the net and is captured. This method of net- 
ting is common from Bering strait to Point Barrow. 
Another method of netting seals through the ice was observed on 
the shore between Bering strait aud St Michael. In swimming along 
the shore the seals are obliged to pass near the rocky points and head- 
lands. Taking advantage of this, the hunters make a series of holes 
through the ice at intervals of from 10 to 15 feet, and then, by use of a 
pole a little longer than the distance between the holes, a stout sealskin 
line is passed along from hole to hole until the cord is run out to the 
distance desired, and is used to drag the long net below the ice. Sink- 
ers are fastened to the lower edge of the net, and it is held in position 
at each end by a stout cord tied to a crossbar at the hole or to a stake 
setin the ice. While swimming beneath the ice during the night the 
seals become entangled in the net and drown. 
For light sinkers on these nets, long, pointed, ivory weights are used 
by the people from the northern end of Norton sound to the coast of 
Bering strait. 
