THE SEAL. 
246 
nislies them with oil for their lamps and fires. 
The skin serves for clothing, bedding, and 
tent-covers, and is employed in making their 
kayaks or boats ; and they find the sinews 
better for sewing than thread or silk. Of the 
fine skin of the entrails they make their win- 
dows, curtains for their tents, and shirts ; and 
part of the bladders they use in fishing, as 
buoys or floats for their harpoons. Of the ^ 
bones they formerly made all the implements 
which are now supplied to them of iron. The 
seal-fishery is, in fact, the only labour to 
which these rude people can devote them- 
selves for a subsistence ; to this labour there- 
fore they are trained from childhood, and to 
acquire dexterity and skill in it is their highest 
ambition. 
When taken young, the seal may be domes- 
ticated. It will follow its master like a dog, 
and come to him when called by its name. 
An individual which had been taken at a little 
