The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1895-01-11
HUNTING THE SEAL.
The Esquimau Adopts Waiting Game
Which Seldom Fails

The Esquimau Adopts y Waiting Game
Which Seldom Fails.
Although the little ringed seal, or
ford seal, contemptuously called the foe
rat by English sailors, is the smallest of
all our species. 1t is also the most enter
prising, says writer in the Century,
In the cold waters of the North it goes
simply everywhere. Throughout tens of
thousands Of square miles of cold and
stormy waters, broken and chaotic ice
peaks and barren floc-icc seven feet
thick. the jolly little ''Netsick" is the
principal inhabitant, ready to yield his
chubby body to any hungry Esquimau
who happens to need it.
Taken altogether, this animal is to
the EsQuimauN generally the most val
uable source of food and clothing of all
the quadrupeds of the North. In rang
ing northward all other seuls stop about
on the eighty-hrst parallel, but the ringed
seal cries "ENcelsior,' 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. Gree'ys party in latitude 50 de-
grees ~ minutes-only thirty miles south
OF the fartheSt north ever reached Nv
man. What is more, Gen Greedy SAYS
that they winter as far north as Robson
channel, though he is puzzled to know
how they maintain breathing holes where
the ice is so thick. 1t seems to me-. how
ever. that with the temperature down
to 80 degrees below zero, one lungful of
air ought to be quite sufficient to last any
seal an entire winter.
The ringed seal is found in Behring sea
and throughout the Arctic ocean in both
hcmispheres. The largest individuals arc
only about feet in length. and by reason
white sealcrs-a very fortunate thing for
the ESuuimauN. In color it is extremely
VARIABLE In collection of fifteen fresh
skins that once came into my hands from
Port Barrow there Were three well-detincd
types-one almost black, another dark.
notified with light. and third almost
ish-yellow rings with darker ccntcrs from
which the species takes it's popular name.
This is the seal which the Esquimau
hunts by simply playing Il waiting game,
in o, which patience , is his most powerful
foe until he finds a little round hole run
water, b" it two feet or six. That is the
breathing hole Of Il seal. which the crea,
turc has kept open with his warm breath
ever Since the ice began to form. Mr.
ESuuimau simply camps on the ice be-
side the hole and shiyers and waits. be
It one hour or fifteen. He waits for Mr..
Seal to come and stick his nose into the
bottom Of the hole to give and take some
air. When he does 50, the 1Isquimau
promptly iabs a spear down through the
hole into the head of the seal If il
catches the animal and holes him fast ali
the native has to do is to chop through
about five feet of solid ice and get it.
This seal is the first aquatic animal
that Esquimau children are taught to
kill. and when 7-year-old Esquiman
Johnnie Kills his first seal the proud
around his neck as trophies of his skin.
1t is said, also, that in their eagcrness
to have their children make a record
Esuuimau mothers sometimes catch seals
on the sly and allow their children to kill
them to add to their individual scores.