Having discovered a seal hole, he provides himself with a block of snow to sit upon, and prepares for a lengthy wait. He takes up his patient station facing the wind (for the seal has the keenest scent, and the Eskimo is, to say the least of it, somewhat smelly), thrusts his feet and legs into a deerskin bag, tucks his hands into the sleeves of his jacket, lays his spear across his knees, and watches—it may be for hours—[[88]]motionless as a rock, for sound travels under the ice and the prey must not be warned. A sealer will wait all day and all night, if need be, at the blow hole. If he should fall asleep, he runs the risk of being maimed for life with frostbite.
The Return of the Successful Seal Hunter in Springtime.
His wife and friends dragging the seal to his tupik, where it will be cut up and all will be invited to the evening meal.
Presently he hears the expected scratching, and the scraping of the paws of a seal coming up to breathe. Silently he prepares for action. Now is the critical time. First, there comes the expulsion of the foul air long pent in the animal’s lungs; but not yet dare the watcher make the slightest sign. The seal withdraws its head and listens intently for a possible foe. Reassured after a few moments, it again approaches the hole with the little dome of snow and, putting its head well up, takes a long, reviving breath. This is the hunter’s moment. His hand slips to his spear (his fur garments making no sound), grips it, and poises it with unerring aim. With one swift downward thrust, the weapon is through the blow hole and its barb buried deep in the neck of the seal. When the eye is true and quick the stroke is seldom missed. The animal immediately dives, taking out the barb and line. The Eskimo seal spear has a movable head or barb, which is attached to the shaft in such a way that it becomes detached from it the moment an animal is struck, and remains firmly embedded in the flesh with the long line of white whale hide attached, while the spear itself floats on the water or falls on the ice as the case may be. The hunter instantly recovers this shaft, and now the butt comes into play. [[89]]The hole is quickly enlarged and the prey hauled up and killed, there on the ice, with one quick stroke.
It is but the work of a few minutes for the dog team (which had been driven away back from the hole as soon as it was discovered), to come racing up. A shout summons every other hunter within sight, and quicker than it takes to tell, there is a concourse of fur-clad figures, the seal is cut open, and a rib, dripping with the fresh, hot blood, is presented to each by way of an invigorating snack. The carcase is soon skewered together again by means of the long ivory pins carried by the hunter, and loaded on to the sled, when the successful “outfit,” bidding a cheery adieu to the others, strikes off then and there for home, rejoicing in the thought of fresh supplies of meat and blubber, and another skin added to the family stores.
When the sealing season fully sets in, sealing camps are formed far out on the ice at sea, over the sealing grounds, and thither the younger half of the entire Eskimo community resorts for a month or more. A new, roughly fashioned, temporary village quickly springs up, and all the usual household goods are installed in readiness for the season’s work on the spot. The camp igloos are much smaller and less ambitious dwellings than those on shore, their sole object being to provide a few weeks’ shelter. There is none of the home life of the permanent village. The men and boys are away all day long, and the women spend all their time preparing and drying the [[90]]skins and keeping the cooking pot going. Water is obtained either from the snow lying deep on the surface of the ice, or from ice from the nearest berg. From early morning till late at night the camp resounds with the crack of whips, the shouts of the dog-team drivers, the gruff voices of men and the shrill voices of boys, as they drive hither and thither, quartering the expanse of the sealing grounds in search of the blow holes. Every foot of the way is closely scanned. Suddenly a deep “Ugh!” from the hunter announces the saucer-like depression in the snow which tells him that a seal cavern is beneath.
Here and there a solitary sportsman with but one dog on a long line sets out on his own, over the sealing ground. He trudges observantly along, urging the dog to ferret about and pick up the scent of the quarry beneath the snow. “White Fang,” nothing loth, sets all his sharp, trained wits to work, and presently starts snuffling and scratching, like any terrier at a rat hole, and the hunter knows he has come upon his prey.
To understand the activities of the sealing camp it is necessary to know something of the habits of the seal in the breeding season. For some time before the baby creature is born, for instance, the mother has been preparing a house for it. She does not give birth in the water nor on the surface of the snow, for the obvious reasons of the cold and of the possible presence of enemies. She makes a hole in the sea ice big enough for her to get through, and proceeds to [[91]]scrabble out an airy cavern in the deep layer of snow above, leaving a sort of shelf or flooring of clear ice upon which she can lie in safety and bring her young to birth. This place is—comparatively—warm, dry, and even cosy. It is within immediate reach of the hole through which she can dive back into the water at a moment’s alarm, and it is almost completely hidden from above. The baby is left in this cavern while the mother seeks food, and it lives there until, after a series of short educational excursions in the water, it has learnt to hunt for itself, and its lungs have accustomed themselves to the conditions of the adult seal’s existence.
Frequently indeed the baby gets drowned! The mother may have heard some noise above which has alarmed her. Fearing danger, she has thrust her head up through the diving hole, caught hold of the young one, and hastily retreated with it to a depth unsuitable for its tender lungs, with a sad and fatal result.