CUTTING} OUT, MAY, 1851. 
CHAPTER XL. 
On the 11th, I was well enough, or imprudent 
enough, to attempt a seal hunt. Our mean temper- 
ature had sunk to 19° 5^, and the snow-crust was 
strong enough to bear. A gale had swept away the 
loose, fleecy drifts of the fortnight before, exposing the 
familiar surface of the older snow. I walked over it 
as I did in April. 
"Reaching the seat of the open water to the north- 
ward, I found it closed by young ice, an extensive 
surface frail and unsafe. About a quarter of a mile 
from the edge of the old floe, almost in the centre of 
this recent lead, was a seal. The temptations of the 
flesh were too much for me : I ventured the ice, crawl- 
ed on my belly, and reached long-shot distance. 
The animal thus laboriously stalked was large; a 
hirsute, bearded fellow, with the true plantigrade 
countenance. All his senses were devoted to enjoy- 
