SEAL. 
331 
Greenlander is fortunate enough to pierce the seal, 
he must immediately throw the bladder tied to the 
end of the string into the water. The seal, who dives 
as soon as wounded, carries with it the hunter’s ap- 
paratus; but the Greenlander is upon the watch, and 
the moment he sees the bladder rise again, hurries 
to the spot, and strikes the seal as soon as it appears, 
with a lance he carries for the purpose. With this 
lance he wounds the creature every time it comes to 
the surface of the water, till it is quite spent. He 
then;kills it ; but stops the wound directly to pre- 
serve the blood (which he boils with other ingre- 
dients, and eats as soup) : lastly he makes a hole in 
the skin and blows it up like a calf, that it may 
float the better ; and having fastened it to the left 
side of the boat, he rows home with his prize. 
In this employment the Greenlander is exposed 
to the greatest danger of his life : for if the line 
should entangle itself, as it easily may; or if it should 
catch hold of the boat, or wind itself round the oar, 
or the hand, or even the neck, as it sometimes does 
in windy weather ; or if the seal should turn sud- 
denly to the other side of the boat, it would infal- 
libly be overturned by the string and drawn under 
water. On such desperate occasions the poor Green- 
lander stands in need of all his art to disentangle 
himself from the string, and to raise himself up 
from under the water several times successively ; 
for he will continually be overturned till he has 
quite extricated himself from the line. 
The clapper-hunt is pursued in the following 
