SEAL-HUNTING ON THE ICE-FIELDS.
The Esquimaux who inhabit the northern limits of North America are perhaps the most daring hunters of the whale, though from their limited resources and poor weapons they do not carry before them the same destruction that do the well organized and disciplined crews of whaling ships. Approaching carefully in their frail canoes their victim, they drive into him the barbed end of a long shaft to the other end of which is attached an inflated bag of seal skin. Carefully avoiding the wrath of the great monster, they attack him again and again, until conquered at last he is towed ashore amid the rejoicings of the tribe who assemble for the feast. No time is lost in preparing for the banquet. The Esquimaux indulge in no such luxury as cooking, but all stand about devouring with rapture the strips of raw blubber which they have cut from the quivering side of their booty. In the capture of the seal, too, the Esquimaux show great cunning. At times they hunt them on the ice where they love to lie basking in the sun, creeping cautiously along till they come near enough to strike them with a harpoon. Great care has to be used that they do not take alarm. Sometimes the hunter pushes before him on a sledge a white screen, behind which he hides himself until ready to strike. The middle of summer is the best time for this, for then the seal is afflicted with snow blindness so as not to know of his approach. Another mode of capture, is to let down into the water a net with coarse meshes which is kept down by heavy stones fastened to its lower edge. Into these meshes the seal blunders when swimming, and being unable to get to the surface to breathe is soon drowned. In winter a still different method is in use. Travelling over the frozen sea the hunter hears a seal gnawing the ice from below, to make a breathing hole. His plan is instantly formed. He stands motionless with uplifted lance, and no sooner does the unfortunate animal nearly work his way through, than the iron barb descends through the thin ice and pierces his skull. So quiet must the hunter be, that to prevent any involuntary motion of his body it is sometimes his habit to tie his knees together with a thong.
WALRUS.
The hunting of the walrus is carried on in very much the same way as that of the seal. Sometimes the animal has climbed the side of an iceberg to bask in the sun, and when he tries to return to the water finds the hole through which he made his exit frozen over. The wary Esquimau guided by his dogs is soon upon him. In stormy weather, this hunting on the ice is very dangerous. A sudden gale breaks up the solid field, and the unfortunate hunter is carried to sea at the mercy of the waves. Dr. Kane tells of the adventures of two Esquimaux, Awaklok and Myouk, who were hunting with their dogs when a storm burst upon them. Instantly the whole sea was one tumultuous mass of cakes of ice grinding and tossing one against another. Realizing that near the shore the danger would be greatest, they made with their dogs and a walrus which they had just killed, for an iceberg upon which they managed after great exertions to find a resting place, though they were obliged to tie their dogs to projections of ice to avoid their being blown away by the gale. One whole month they floated on this iceberg living on the meat of the walrus, when their huge ship grounded, and the weather being calm, ice formed sufficiently strong for them to escape to the shore.
