192 TRACKING SEALS WITH DOGS. , 



patience. In it each hunter has a trained dog which runs on ahead,', but 

 is held by a strap around his neck from going too fast and far. The dog- 

 scents the seal, lying in its excavation under the snow (the level surface 

 of which, of course, gives no sign of the cave), and barks ; whereupon 

 the hunter, who is close behind, hastens forward, and by a vigorous jump 

 breaks down the cover before the young seal can escape. If lie succeeds 

 in cutting off its retreat it is an easy prey, for he simply knocks it on the 

 head ; otherwise he must use his seal-hook very quickly or his game is 

 gone. 



"It sometimes happens," says Mr. L. Kumlien, "that the hunter is 

 unfortunate enough to jump the snow down directly over the hole, when 

 he gets a pretty thorough wetting. The women often take part in this 

 kind of sealing, and become quite expert. The children begin when they 

 are four or five years old : the teeth and flippers of the first catch are 

 saved as a trophy, and are worn about the little fellow's neck ; this they 

 think will give him good-luck when he begins the next year. 



"As the season advances, and the young begin to shed their coats, the 

 roof of their igloo or cave is often, or perhaps always, broken down, and 

 the mother and young can be seen on sunny days basking in the warm sun- 

 shine beside their atluk. The mother will take to the water when the 

 hunter has approached within gunshot, and will leave the young one to 

 shift for itself, which generally ends in its staring leisurely at the hunter 

 until suddenly it finds a hook in its side. A stout seal-skin line is then 

 made fast to its hind-flipper and it is let into the atluk. It of course 

 makes desperate efforts to free itself, and is very apt to attract the atten- 

 tion of the mother if she is anywhere in the vicinity. The Eskimo care- 

 fully watches the movements of the young one, and as soon as the mother 

 is observed, begins to haul in on the line; the old one follows nearer and 

 nearer to the surface, until at last she crosses the hole at the proper depth, 

 when the deadly harpoon is planted in her body and she is quickly drawn 

 out. If, however, the mother has seen the hunter approaching the atluk, 

 she will not show herself." 



Norwegian sailors declare that the seals as they He sleeping on the 

 ice are carefully guarded and watched over by gulls {Larus glauous), or 

 "burgomasters," as they are more frequently called; and that these birds 

 act the part of faithful sentinels, warning them on the approach of 

 danger. Captain Albert Markham, when cruising off Nova Zernbla, in 

 1879, was once in a position to corroborate this assertion, and has re- 

 corded the facts in his history of the voyage of the Isbjorn. His com- 

 .panion, Sir H. Gr. Booth, had left the ship in one of the walrus boats to 



