2G0 
THE SEAL. 
green and juicy in their centres: all this under the 
snow. So we have assurance that summer is coming; 
though our tide-hole freezes every night alongside, and 
the ice-floe seems to be as fast as ever. 
“June 8, Thursday.—Hans brings us in to-day a 
couple of seal: all of them as yet are of the Rough 
or Hispid species. The flesh of this seal is eaten uni¬ 
versally by the Danes of Greenland, and is almost the 
staple diet of the Esquimaux. When raw, it has a 
flabby look, more like coagulated blood than muscular 
fibre: cooking gives it a dark soot-color. It is close- 
grained, but soft and tender, with a flavor of lamp- 
oil—a mere soupgon, however, for the blubber, when 
fresh, is at this season sweet and delicious. 
“ The seal are shot lying by their atluJc or breath¬ 
ing-holes. As the season draws near midsummer, 
they are more approachable; their eyes being so con¬ 
gested by the glare of the sun that they are sometimes 
nearly blind. Strange to say, a few hours’ exposure 
of a recently-killed animal to the sun blisters and 
destroys the hide; or, as the sealers say, cooks it. 
We have lost several skins in this way. Each seal 
yields a liberal supply of oil, the average thus far 
being five gallons each.” 
Besides the Hispid seal, the only species which 
visited Rensselaer Ilai’bor was the Phoca harbata, the 
large bearded seal, or usuk of the Esquimaux. I have 
measured these ten feet in length and eight in circum¬ 
ference, of such unwieldy bulk as not unfrequently to 
be mistaken for the walrus. 
