150 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTIGS OF CANAD 
its centre is marked by erecting a little pinnacle of snow 
directly above it. 
This done, a long and tedious wait follows, during 
which time the patient hunter often suffers much from 
the cold, for he is obliged to remain quite still, not un- 
commonly from early morning until evening. In order 
to keep the feet from freezing, while thus remaining for 
hours upon the snow, a deer-skin bag is commonly used 
to stand in. | 
During the interval of the seal’s absence from home 
the doorway becomes frozen over, and it is on account. 
of this fact that the hunter is made aware of its return, 
for when the seal comes back to its hole and finds it 
crusted over, it at once commences to blow upon the 
ice to melt it. ‘This is the hunter’s long-desired signal, 
and the moment he hears it he places the point of his 
harpoon at the mark on the snow, and thrusts the 
weapon vertically down into the hole, almost invariably 
with deadly effect. The seal, thus harpooned in the 
head, is instantly killed, and is then hauled out by the 
line attached to the spear. 
Some seasons, when the ice is covered by a great. 
depth of snow, the dogs are not able to scent the seals’ 
houses, and then the Eskimo has to depend upon other 
sources for food, or else go on short rations. 
In the spring, as the snow disappears, the seals’ win- 
ter quarters are demolished, and they themselves are 
exposed to view. Then the Eskimo is obliged to resort. 
to other methods of getting at them. When one is. 
observed, the direction of the wind is first noted, then 
the hunter, keeping himself to leeward of the seal, walks. 
to within about a quarter of a mile of it; but beyond 
