188 MIGRATIONS OF GREENLAND SEALS. 



seal — is very large, and is especially prized on account of the thickness of 

 its skin. Out of it they make not only, the slender-pointed canoe-like 

 boats, called " kayaks," in which they chase this and other wandering 

 species, but also the stont lines to which their harpoons are attached. It 

 gives durable soles for their boots, too, and strong harnesses for the dogs, 

 besides which the flesh is sweet. It is one of the most easily killed of all 

 seals, because it is not watchful. The harp-seal is also readily killed along 

 the edges of the ice-floes* by the kayaker, but he values it little, excepting 

 to eat ; the bearded seal, or " square-flipper," on the contrary, shows fight, 

 taxing the courage and skill of the bravest of those hardy natives to over- 

 come its fierce resistance and avoid its terrible bite. 



The one seal useful above all others to the Eskimos, and eagerly pur- 

 sued, is their favorite netsiclc, one of the smaller species, frequently called 

 in our books the ringed seal, or " floe-rat." It is confined to the polar 

 seas, rarely wandering south of Labrador, but it belongs also to the arctic 

 shores of Europe, Asia, and Alaska, so that not only the Eskimos proper, 

 but many arctic Indian tribes, regularly hunt it. 



Although it is hunted throughout the year, the most profitable time 

 for killing the netsick is in April, when each mother seal is accompanied 

 by a young one. Here, perhaps, I may digress a little in order to tell you 

 something of the babyhood of the Greenland or harp seal. 



Of the different sorts of seals I have mentioned, all but two are migra- 

 tory — that is to say, the whole body of them move from north to south 

 each autumn, and back from south to north eacli spring. Upon this im- 

 portant fact the great fleets of fishermen, of which I shall give an account 

 presently, depend for their success. The annual southward journey of 

 the restless harp-seal furnishes a vivid picture of these great migrations 

 which are so prominent a feature of polar history. Keeping just ahead 

 of the "making" of the ice, or final freezing up of the fiords and bays, 

 at the approach of winter they leave Greenland, and begin their passage 

 southward along the coast of Labrador, freely entering all the gulfs and 

 bays. They appear first in small detachments of half a dozen to a score 

 or more of individuals ; these are soon followed by larger companies, until 

 in a few days they form one continuous procession, filling the sea as far 

 as the eye can reach. Floating with the arctic current, their progress is 

 extremely rapid, and in but one short week the whole multitude has 

 passed. Arriving at the Straits of Belle Isle, some enter the gulf, but the 



* A field of floating ice, in the arctic phrase, is a "floe," so long as it remains a firm 

 sheet; when it breaks up it becomes a "pack," or "pack-ice." 



