330 
SEAL. 
Seals contribute greatly to the support of many of 
the people within the arctic circle ; among others, the 
Greenlanders must acknowledge themselves highly 
indebted to these animals, for furnishing them with 
the means of dispelling the gloom of their long and 
dreary winter night. But it is not for their oil alone 
that the inhabitants have to be thankful : the 
flesh serves them for food, they soften their fish in 
the train, they make thread of the sinews ; of their 
entrails they make their windows, and even their 
shirts, and their boats are covered with the skins. 
After having enumerated the several uses to which 
the Greenlanders put the seals, it is not surprising 
that they should be anxious to excel in catching 
them, or to train up their children in the art, since 
no man is reckoned a true Greenlander, or a bene- 
ficial member of the community, who is deficient 
in this respect. 
Mr. Crantz, a gentleman who spent a conside- 
rable time in Greenland, and whose observations 
are to be depended on, says that the Greenlanders 
have three ways of catching seals; either singly with 
a bladder, or in company by the clapper-hunt , or in 
the winter on the ice. When the Greenlander sets 
out properly equipped for the purpose, and finds a 
seal, he tries to surprise it by getting the wind and 
sun in his back, that he may not be heard or seen by 
the animal; he then rows his boat softly towards it, till 
comes within five or six fathoms, taking the utmost 
care that the harpoon, line and bladder, lie in pro- 
per order. He then throws the harpoon; and if the 
