252 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
end. The line is then detached from the plummet and fastened to one 
upper corner of the net, and a second line is let down through the other 
small hole and made fast in the same way to the other upper corner. 
By pulling on these lines the net is drawn down through the middle and 
stretched like a curtain under the ice, while a line at the middle serves 
to haul it up again. The end lines are but loosely made fast to lumps 
of ice, so that when a seal strikes the net nothing hinders his wrapping 
it completely around him in his struggles to escape. When the hunter, 
who is usually watching his net, thinks the seal is sufficiently entangled 
he hauls him up through the large hole and sets the net again. 
I had no opportunity of observing whether any weights or plummets 
were used to keep down the lower edge of the net. These nets are now 
universally employed, but one native spoke of a time “long ago” when 
there were no nets and they captured seals with the spear (u/ne) alone. 
The net was used in seal catching in Dr. Simpson’s time, though he 
makes but a casual reference to it,’ and Beechey found seal nets at 
Kotzebue Sound in 1826.2. The net is very generally used for sealing 
among the Eskimo of western America and in Siberia. We observed 
seal nets set with stakes along the shore of the sandspit at Plover Bay, 
and Nordenskiéld speaks of seal nets “ set in summer among the ground 
ices along the shore,”*and at open leads in the winter, but gives no 
description of the method of setting these nets beyond mentioning the 
“long pole which was used in setting the net,”4as none of his party 
ever witnessed the seal fishery. I am informed by Mr. W. H. Dall that 
the winter nets in Norton Sound are not set under the ice as at Point 
Barrow, but with stakes in shoal water wherever there are open holes 
in the ice. “Ice nets” are spoken of as in use for sealing in Greenland, 
but I have been able to find no description of them. As they are not 
spoken of by either Egede or Crantz I am inclined to believe that they 
were introduced by the Europeans.6 Mr. L. M. Turner informs me that 
such is the case at Ungava Bay on the southern shore of Hudson 
Strait, where they use a very long net set under the ice very much as 
at Point Barrow. I can find no mention of the use of seal nets among 
any other of the eastern Eskimo. 
It is well known that seals have a great deal of curiosity, and are 
easily attracted by any unusual sounds, especially if they are gentle 
and long-continued. It is therefore easy to entice them into the nets 
by making such noises, for instance, gentle whistling, rattling on the 
ice with the pick, and so forth. Two special implements are also used 
for this purpose. The first kind I have called: 
1Op. cit., p. 262. 
2 Voyage, pp. 295, 574. 
3 Vega, vol. 2, p. 108. 
4Thid., p. 98. 
® See also the reference to Hooper's Corwin Report, quoted below under Hunting. 
° See, however, the writer's paper in the American Anthropologist, vol. 1, p. 333. 
