He
gathers up his weapons, sits down and lights his pipe, and after a
recuperative smoke moves on in search of another opportunity to go
through the same process.
Sometimes he is fortunate enough to find a seal absolutely asleep upon
the ice, and then he can walk right up alongside of him and put the
rifle barrel to his ear before firing. In some parts of the Arctic, as
at Iwillik (Repulse Bay), there is a species called "wandering seal,"
which in the spring are known to come upon the ice in great numbers,
usually through a huge crack, and move quite a distance from the open
water. This affords the natives a grand opportunity, and the entire
village--men, women and children--repair to the spot, and by getting
between the seals and the water, cut off their escape, so that they
fall an easy prey to the clubs with which they are slaughtered by the
men. In this way they sometimes kill as many as seventy-five or a
hundred in a single day. But the haunts of the "wandering seal" are not
found everywhere; they are favored localities. It is generally pretty
hard work to kill a seal.
During the winter months the seals do not come out upon the ice, and
are then hunted usually with dogs that are trained for the purpose. The
hunter, equipped with his spear-shaft in his hand, and his line, with
the barbed spear-head attached, thrown over his shoulder, starts out,
leading his dog, whose harness is on and the trace wound several times
around his neck, so that but a yard or two is left to trail along the
snow.
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