448 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



sliot of a seal when basking upon the ice ; yet Ninoo catches them with his 

 own paws ; and the Innuits, taught by him, come within the distance of a 

 spear's cast. 



The way Ninoo goes to work at seal-hunting upon the ice, according to In- 

 nuit accounts, is this : He sees far away upon the ice a black spot, which he 

 knows to be a seal resting at the edge of his hole, and taking a succession of 

 " cat naps," hardly ten seconds long, lifting up his head between times, and nar- 

 rowly surveying the whole horizon. Ninoo flings himself upon his side, and 

 creeps along when the seal's head is down. The moment the seal's head is 

 raised the bear stops short, and begins "talking" to the seal. The sound 

 which he utters is quite distinct from his ordinary voice. The seal is charmed, 

 suspects no harm, and down goes his head for another nap. Forward goes 

 Ninoo, and so on for a long time, until he gets within leaping distance ; then 

 one spring, and it is all over with Nutchook. The Innuits say that if they 

 could only talk to Nutchook as cleverly as Ninoo does, they would catch more 

 seals. The Innuit imitates Ninoo. 



Hall describes one of these hunts, the main actor being an Innuit named 

 Koojesse : " Koojesse had ' talk' with seals, and it was with great interest that 

 I watched him. He lay down on one side, and crawled by hitches or jerks to- 

 wards his victim ; then as the seal raised its head Koojesse would stop, and 

 commenced pawing w^ith his right hand and foot, while he uttered his * seal- 

 talk.' On this the seal would feel a charm, raise and shake its flippers both 

 fore and aft, and roll over on its side and back as if perfectly delighted ; after 



LOOKING FOR SEALS. 



