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for hours, watching the bubble of air that warns him of the
seal coming to breathe. And scarcely has the animal raised its
nostrils to the surface before the hunter’s harpoon is deeply
buried in its body. This sport is not without danger that adds
to the excitement of the succes. The line attached to the point
of the harpoon is passed in a loop around the hunters loins,
and, should the animal he has struck be a large seal or walrus,
woe betide him if he does not instantly plant his feet in the
notch cut for this purpose in the ice, and throw himself into
such a position that the strain of the line is as nearly as
possible brought into direction of the length of the spine of his
back and the axis of his lower limbs. A transverse pull of the
powerful beast would double him up across the air hole and
perhaps break his back, or if the opening be large, as it often
is when spring is advanced, he would be dragged under water
and drowned».
(2) THE SEALS OF ALASKA. Jacobsen has informed me,
that «Maklak» does not appear to be the name of a certain
species of seals but rather to signify the skin of larger seals
in general, that are prepared for covers of umiaks and kayaks,
for soles of boots etc. The hooded seal of Greenland, he adds,
does not occur in north western America where the Fur-seal
occupies its place.
(3) HARPOONS AND OTHER IMPLEMENTS. Petersen relates
that in Smith’s-Sound the lance without barbs, called «angeguja»
is the only weapon employed in bear hunting (with dogs). The
walrus is attacked, when sleeping on the ice, or from the edge
of the ice, when it emerges from the water, first with a
harpoon to which is fixed a hunting line, afterwards killing it with
the angeguja.
Dr. Boas gives a very plain description of hunting on the ice
in Baffin’s land. A light harpoon is used, called unang.
Before getting iron rods it consisted of a shaft having at one end
an ivory point firmly attached by thongs and rivets, the point
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