The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-31
HUNTING THE SEAL.
The Eskimo Plays Waiting Game and
Gets the Quarry.
FROM ST. Nicholas


Although the little ringed seal or Fiord
seal contemptuously called the foe rat by
English sailors. is the smallest Of all our
species, it is also the most interesting. In
the cold waters of the uorth it goes simply
everywhere. Throughout tens of thous-
ands of square miles of cold and stormy
waters, broken and chaotic ice packs and
barren foe ice seven feet thick, the Jolly
little "Netsick" is the principal inhabit-
ant, ready to yield his chubby body to any
hungry Eskimo who happens to need It,
Taken altogether, this animal is to the
Eskimos generally the most valuable
source of food and clothing of all the
quadrupeds of the north. In ranging
nOrthward, all other seals stop about on
the etghty-first parallel, but the ringed
seal cries Excelsior" and presses right
on. Regardless of cold and other draw
/ backs he joyOusly paddles past Lady
Franklin bay, out through Robson chan
mel, and into the Polar sea itself, which
is named after our greatest American
north of all land. 1t was observed by Gen.
Greely's party in latitude 50 degrees "a
minutes-only thirty miles south of the
farthest north ever reached by man.
| What is more, Gen. Greedy says that they
winter as far north as Robson enamel
though he is puzzled to know how they
MAINTAIN breathing IOlBS WHeTC ice is SO
thick 1t seems to me, however, that
with the temperature down to 60 degrees
below zero, one lungful of air ought to be
quite sufficient to last any seal an en-
tire winter.
The ringed seal is found in Boring sea,
and throughout the Arctic ocean in both
hemispheres. The largest individuals are
only about four feet in length, and by
reason of its size, this species is de-
spised by the white sealers-a very fortu-
nate thing for the Eskimos. In color it
is extremely variable. In a collection of
fifteen fresh skins that once came into
my hands from Point Barrow, there were
| three well-dehned types - one almost
black, another dark, notified with light
and a third almost yellow. All showed
the curious brownish-yellow rings with
darker centers from which the species
takes its popular name.
This is the seal which the Eskimo hunts
by simply playing a waiting game, in
which patience is bis most powerful wea-
pom lie seeks over the solid ice foe
until he finds a little round hole running
down through the ice quite to the water,
be 1t two feet or six. That is the breath
| ing hole of a SEAL which the creature
has kept open with its warm breath ever
since the ice began to form. Mr. Es-
klmo simply camps on the ice beside the
hole, and shivers and waits be 1t one hour
! OF Hlleeh' lie waits LOT Mr.. seal TO come
and stick his nose into the bottom Of the
hole TO give and take some air When
he does so the Eskimo promptly jabs a
spear down through the hole, into the
head Of the seal. If It catches the ami
NAL and holds him fast. all the native has
to do Is 10 chop through about five feet
Of solid ice and get &C.
This seal is the first aquatic animal that
/ Eskimo children are taught TO kin, and
when 1-yedr-old Eskimo Johnnie kills his
first seal the proud father hangs the
teeth and front hippors around his neck
as trophies OF his skin. II "a said also
that IN their eaEerues5 20 have their child
rem make "a record Eskimo mothers
sometimes catch seals on the ely and al
| low their little children 20 kin them, TO
add TO their individual scores.