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might be added as a curiosity that the Eastcoast of Greenland
can boast of one or two improvements unknown on the
Westcoast. Small as certainly they are when compared with the
whole equipment one of them nevertheless deserves to be
mentioned. It consists in having the large bladder replaced by two
smaller ones closely bound together. Besides the security it
otherwise affords, the usefulness of this contrivance may be
perceived when we consider the critical circumstances under
which the capture of a seal is performed, and especially the
fact taken into account that the several operations of throwing
the harpoon and at the same time getting rid of the bladder
and line, killing the animal with the lance, fastening it for being
towed and finally restoring and duly fixing the instruments used
— have all to be done with one hand, while the other must
keep hold of the paddle, ready to avert the dangers which at
the same time may arise from the sea. Experience has probably
shown that the double bladder is easier to handle and
especially to catch hold of than the large one. It must, as a matter
of course, be understood that here, as well as in the following
pages we speak of natives and especially Greenlanders as they
were before their primitive habits were influenced by contact
with Europeans.
This might be sufficient so far as sealhunting from kayak
is concerned. It is well known that the same animal is hunted
also by other means, some of which in certain regions more
or less supplant the kayak. This is the case, where the winter
ice hinders its use for too long a period of the year.
Moreover whalefishery is carried on by the Eskimo in different places
with great expertness, and for this kind of chase as well as in
pursuing other large cetaceous animals and seals the open
skinboat is made use of as much as, or even more so than the kayak.
But when SEALHUNTING MUST BE PERFORMED ON THE FROZEN
SEA, the methods practised do not seem to have been subjected
to the same kind of changes which we have seen in the operations
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