"186 ENEMIES OF THE SEAL. 



themselves by continually breaking away the young ice as fast as it is 

 formed. These holes are never very large at the surface — sometimes only 

 big enough to let one animal poke his nose up through ;■ they are much 

 like chimneys, indeed, for the ice may sometimes be a hundred feet thick. 



Before I go further, let me say that the word " seal " applies to several 

 families of pinnipeds, only one of which concerns us at present. This is 

 the Phocidce, or family of earless seals, of which the common harbor-seal, 

 the ringed seal, the harp or Greenland seal, and the bearded or hooded 

 seal, are chiefly to be remembered. Concerning the gigantic sea-elephant 

 of the antarctic pole, the huge sea-lions of the Pacific, and the various 

 "fur" seals, we have no occasion to speak. All our present subjects in- 

 habit the coasts of the arctic zone washed by the North Atlantic, and 

 principally Greenland and Newfoundland. 



While the breathing-holes in the ice afford the seals their only possi- 

 bilities of life, they often prove to be death-traps, since many foes lie in 

 wait near them. 



The enemies of seals, other than man, are not a few, both on land and 

 in the water. The polar bear, finding their holes, watches as quietly and 

 vigilantly as a cat for a mouse, and leaps upon them as they rise to 

 breathe, or even chases them into the sea, and so captures a great many. 

 The arctic wolves and foxes, the raven, and probably also the great snowy 

 owl, attack the young before they are able to defend themselves or escape, 

 making their onslaughts so actively that the heavy and awkward parents 

 have hard work to defend their babies. The full-grown seals, as well as 

 the young, are seized in the water by sharks and sword-fish, and also by 

 killer-whales, which, though of small size, are able to conquer the mon- 

 strous right-whale. 



Travellers say that when a sword-fish sees a seal upon a floating " pan " 

 or cake of ice, he will get on one side and tip the pan down to such an 

 angle that the seal must slip off, and then will devour it. So great is a 

 seal's terror of these water foes that, should a man be on the pan when 

 sword-fish and sharks are after hiin, the seal will run between his feet for 

 protection. Many seals are killed, too, by fighting among themselves, 

 and by the fierce storms of the frozen zone. 



The most ingenious and dreaded enemies of the seal, however (leaving 

 out of sight for the present the white men), are the Eskimos. To them 

 seals are of the utmost importance, and we may say that in many parts of 

 the arctic world men could not live without these animals. The Eskimos' 

 methods of hunting this game, and the hundred ways in which they 

 utilize its body, will be interesting matters to look into. 



