INNUIT CHARACTER, CUSTOMS, ETC. 



579 



ready to take care of itself. 

 The second engraving rep- 

 resents a seal that has just 

 come up through the wa- 

 ter to its breathing-hole, 

 which is covered by snow. 

 Above it sits an Innuit, 

 who has pierced the snow 

 with his spear j ust over the 

 seal's hole in the ice, and 

 who watches till he hears 

 the animal puff, then quick- 

 ly and almost unerringly 

 strikes. 



From the polar bear, too, 

 the Innuits learn much. 

 The manner of approach- 

 ing the seal which is on the 

 ice by its hole basking in 

 the sunshine is from him. 

 The bear lies down and 

 crawls by hitches toward 



covering the sea-ice. Before the igloo is made, the prospective mother, to get her- 

 self upon the ice, scratches away the inverted tunnel-like-shaped ice, as seen in the 

 second engraving. The igloo is then made by the seal scratching an excavation 

 from the snow with the sharp, lady-like nails with which its fore flippers are armed, 

 the excavated snow being taken down beneath the thick ice from time to time by 

 the seal. Soon after this house is prepared a little seal is born. Seal igloos are 

 made about the 1st of April, the time when the "pupping" season commences. 

 None but very sharp-scented animals can find these igloos, and they are the seals' 

 worst enemies. These animals are the polar bear, the fox, and the seal-dog. The 

 latter, however, simply scent out the igloo, leaving the master to catch the game, 

 while the bear and fox not only find, but capture it. "When the dog has led his mas- 

 ter to the secret seal lodge beneath the snow, the man retreats from fifteen to twen- 

 ty paces, and then runs forward swiftly, leaping high and far on concluding his race. 

 As he comes down he crushes in the dome, and quickly thrusts his seal hook this way 

 and that around in the igloo, till he has the young seal quivering in the agonies of 

 death. 



* The water, ice, and snow of the second engraving are represented in like man- 

 ner as in the preceding one. The appearance of the seal hole, and the bed of snow 

 above, as they are during the winter season till about the 1st of April, is well repre- 

 sented. The sealer is awaiting the seal's blow. It is time he was up and ready to 

 strike, for as soon as a seal has its nose out of the water, as the one here represent- 

 ed, its puffing noise is heard. When the sealer, by the aid of his dog, has found the 

 seal hole, he has sometimes to watch there two or three days and nights. The dog 



JSO. BECTIO-NAL VIEW OF SEAL JtlOEE.* 



