[Illustration: Seal Hunter]

In this situation, we are told, a man will sit quietly for ten or twelve hours together, at a temperature of thirty or forty degrees below zero, watching for the opportunity of killing and taking the seal, which is supposed to be at work making its hole beneath in the ice. The Esquimaux, partly sheltered from the "winter's wind," and fast-falling snow, by a snow-wall, has got his spear and lines ready, and he has tied his knees together, to prevent his disturbing the seal by making the slightest noise.