126 NATURAL HI S T OR Y of N R WA Y. 



Sselhund as big as a horfe : fome are alfo called Klapmutzer, 

 becaufe they have a loofe skin on their head, which they can at 

 pleafure throw down over their eyes and fnout : their eyes are 

 very fore and tender, and a flight blow on them will flun the 

 Firfi; their head is fomething like the head of a dog with cropt 

 ears, and the under-lip hanging down ; about the nofe there 

 are feveral long and prickly hairs, and the body is covered all 

 over with fhort light grey hairs, and fpotted with black. Under 

 their fore-part there are two broad paws, and towards the tail 

 there are fomething like fins, and thefe they make ufe of to 

 crawl about with. They breed, and bring forth their young, on 

 land, in the fame manner as land animals do, and that twice a year, 

 and produce but one young one at a time. It is faid that in bad 

 weather, or in any danger, the mother will fwallow the young 

 one, and bring it up again. Mr. Derham, in his Phyfico Theolp- 

 gie, Lib iv. cap. ii. p. 410, affirms this: but I (hall leave it unde- 

 cided. The penis of this creature is altogether bony. They 

 are moft commonly killed with fire-arms about our coaft, and fome 

 few with clubs, when the fifhermen find them afleep, and can 

 get near enough to them. 



Our Bergen feamen, who, every year, in the month of March, 

 fail from hence to Jan Mayen ifland, or to the eaftern fide of 

 Greenland, in large {hips, generally lie there till Midfummer- 

 day, then they go with their Hoops or boats, between the large 

 flakes of ice, upon which the Sea-Calves lie fieeping by hun- 

 Kegukdons dreds together, and deftroy the greateft part of them. In their 

 republic, they make this cautious regulation, that one of them 

 muft ftand centinel, on thefe occafions, while the reft fleep, and 

 with a kind of a noife like the hoarfe barking of a dog, he 

 wakes them, when either the white bear, who prowls about upon 

 the ice, or any other enemy, approaches. Thefe people there- 

 fore come upon them fuddenly, and with what they call 

 a Dollftock, which has a thick iron ring and an iron fpike at 

 the end, give them a blow on the fnout, hard enough to make 

 fare of them, and prevent them from making their efcape ; in 

 this manner they ferve every one they can come at. The fat 

 which covers the flefli is flayed off with the skin, and put up 

 in large casks, in order to make train oil. The skins, when they 

 have fprinkled fome fait upon them, to keep them from rotting, 

 are rolled up fingly. The catching of thefe is fometimes as pro- 

 fitable as fifhing for Whales ; for a (hip may carry off 7 or 800 

 casks of fat in a feafon, and they will frequently take 2 or 300 

 in a day. What our fiQiermen affirm, appears very ftrange, 



namely, 



for their 

 fafety. 



