. Adventures of two youths in the open Polar Sea. on shore, followed by twoof the sailors, all armed with clubs; with no other weapons they rushedamong the seals, and in a short time a dozen or more had been killed. Aviolent blow on the nose is fatal to the seal, but it is not easy to hit him inthe right spot, as he does not stand still, and besides, he shows fight whenin close quarters. The male seal is particularly fierce, and will make astout defence; woe be to the assailant who slips on the rocks and givesone of these fellows a chance for a bite on arm or leg. He can sever anarm at a singl
. Adventures of two youths in the open Polar Sea. on shore, followed by twoof the sailors, all armed with clubs; with no other weapons they rushedamong the seals, and in a short time a dozen or more had been killed. Aviolent blow on the nose is fatal to the seal, but it is not easy to hit him inthe right spot, as he does not stand still, and besides, he shows fight whenin close quarters. The male seal is particularly fierce, and will make astout defence; woe be to the assailant who slips on the rocks and givesone of these fellows a chance for a bite on arm or leg. He can sever anarm at a single movement of his jaws, and can break the bone of a mansleg without much effort. No accident happened to the sealers, and they returned with a full loadof meat as the reward of their exertions. Not only was the boat laden aslow as was safe to fill her, but several of the seals were towed astern, andhad to be hoisted in with a tackle at the end of one of the spars. Theflesh of the seal is excellent eating, and sailors generally prefer it to The crew were liberally provided-with it, and so were the dogs; whatwith young bear, ducks, and plover, in the cabin and wardroom, and seal-meat in the forecastle, there was no scarcity of fresh provisions on board 9* 134 THE VOYAGE OF THE VIVIAN. the Vivian. The Ganibetta had followed her consorts example and senta boat among the seals, but evidently her men were not skilful in the pur-suit of that amphibious game, as they secured less than half as many asthe other boat. As fat as a seal is an old saying in the eastern States, and certainlyit is an expressive one. The seal is visually in excellent condition, and atcertain seasons of the year contains so much oil that he is a valuable prizeto his captors. The seal-fisheries of Greenland employ great, numbers ofmen, principally from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and also from Ice-land, Norway, and Denmark. Some of the seals are taken for their skins,but the main purpose of capture is fo
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