OKDER V. THE CAKNIVORA. 190 



capturing of a seal is but tlie work of a nioincnt. A blow with a seal-cliih 

 on the nose immediately stuns it, and affords an op^Jortuuity of arresting 

 the flig'lit, and making prize of nianv at a time. 



Wiien tiie hunters observe tlie seals making their escape into the water, 

 while the boat is yet distant from the iee-field, they give a loud and long- 

 continued shout, by which unusual noise the poor creatures are so bewil- 

 dered that they delay their retreat, and fall easy victims to the blows of 

 their relentless pursuers. 



The hyperborean tribes have tlirce modes of catching seals : eitlicr indi- 

 vidually in a boat, or in company, by what the Grcenlanders call the 

 cliijijicr-hitnl, or, in winter, on tiie ice. Speaking of the Greenland seal, 

 Crantz says it is a stupid animal, and the oidy one the Greenlander, wIr-u 

 alone, will venture to attack. Tliis he docs in his kajak, which is shnped 

 like a weaver's shuttle. AVhcn he spies a seal, he tries to surprise it una- 

 wares, with the wind and sun in his Ijack, that he may not be heard or seen. 

 He makes hastily, but softly, towards it, till he reaches within four or six 

 fathoms. He then takes hohl of the our with his left hand, and the har- 

 poon with his right, and so throws it at the seal. The moment the instru- 

 ment is fixed, the Greenlander must throw the attached buoy on the side 

 where the animal dives, which it does instantly like a dart. The seal often 

 draws the buoy along with it under, and thus so fatigues itself that it nuist 

 soon come to the surface again to take breath. The hunter now hastens to 

 smite it with his long lance, and keeps darting at it till it is quite exliausted, 

 when lie kills it outright with iiis small lance, and then blows it up like a 

 bladder, that it may swim more easily after liis kajak. lu this exercise ho 

 is exposed to the greatest peril of his life ; for if the line should entangle 

 itself, or if the seal should turn suddenly to the other side of the boat, it 

 cannot be otherwise than that the kajak must be overturned, and drawn 

 down under water. 



Crantz also furnishes a lively and graphic description of the clapper- 

 hunt, which is prosecuted by the natives in concert. As soon as they 

 discover a herd, driven usually by stormy weather into some creek or inlet, 

 they endeavor to cut off the retreat of the animals, and frighten them under 

 water by shouting, clapping, and throwing stones. As, however, the seals 

 must speedily come to the surface to breathe, they persecute them again till 

 they are tired, and at last are obliged to stay so long above water that they 

 are surrounded and killed by long and short lances. 



Pallas gives an account of another method of deluding and destroying 

 these animals. "^Vt Zivovia we met a number of people going a seal-hunt- 

 ing. This fishery is farmed out, and is pursued chietly in April. They 

 congregate in numbers in winter, in the neighborhood of rapid rivers and 



