SEAL. 
333 
near which he seats himself on a stool, putting his 
feet on a lower one to keep them from the cold. In 
this situation he watches very patiently the arrival 
of a seal, which he instantly pierces with his har- 
poon, and if necessary enlarges the hole, through 
which he draws the creature and kills it upon the 
ice. Sometimes a Greenlander lays himself upon 
his belly, on a kind of sledge, near a large hole, 
where the seals come out on purpose to enjoy them- 
selves, and bask in the sun. Near this great hole 
they make a little one, and another Greenlander 
puts a harpoon into it with a very long shaft. He 
that lies upon the ice looks into the great hole, till 
he sees a seal coming under the harpoon ; then he 
gives the other the signal, who runs the seal through 
with all his might. 
If a Greenlander sees one of these animals lying 
near its hole upon the ice, he slides along upon his 
belly towards it, wags his head, and grunts like a 
seal ; while the silly creature, thinking it is one of 
its innocent companions, suffers the man to come 
near enough to pierce it with his long dart. 
The enterprising French traveller M. Acerbi, in 
his Journey through Finland, has mentioned an in- 
stance of the great danger to which the inhabitants 
of that country sometimes expose themselves for the 
sake of the seals’ skin and fat. 
A few years ago two Finlanders set out in a boat 
together. Having got sight of some seals on a little 
floating island, they quitted their boat and mount- 
ed the ice, moving on their hands and knees to get 
