e will dine that day off seal.

Nutchook's nap is a series of "cat-naps," each lasting about ten
seconds, and after each he lifts his head and looks around. Ninoo
crouches low upon the ice, and creeps along when the seal is napping.
The moment his head is raised, the bear stops short and begins to talk
to Nutchook. The sound that he utters while thus talking is quite
different from his ordinary voice, and seems to charm the seal, who lays
his head down for another nap, during which Ninoo again advances. At
last the bear is within springing distance, and in a moment all is over
with poor Nutchook.

Although seals are caught at all seasons of the year, the great hunts
take place in the spring and early summer months. At this time the fur
is in the best possible condition, and as they play in the open water
lanes near the coast, or bask in great numbers on the ice, their capture
is comparatively easy. During the summer the glare of the sun so affects
the eyes of the seal that he becomes almost blind, and is easily
approached.

Hundreds of vessels, many of them steamers, are engaged in the seal
fishery, and on the first page of this number is a picture of the boats
belonging to one of these "sealers" drifting cautiously down upon a
number of seals that have been basking and frolicking on the ice,
heedless of the approach of danger. Hundreds of thousands of seals are
thus killed every year for the sake of their skins, which are shipped to
every part of the world, and from which are made the beautiful sacques,
muffs, tippets, and gloves with which most of our readers are so
familiar. Only last month a disaster occurred that vividly illustrates
the danger of sealing. A huge ice-field a hundred miles long, and
bringing with it thousands of seals, drifted down from the North, and
stranded on the coast of Newfoundland near St. Johns. For several days
the people living along the coast ventured far out on the ice, and
captured great numbers of the seals.

Suddenly, on the 4th of April, the northeast wind that had been blowing
steadily for two weeks, and keeping the ice packed, changed to a warm
southerly breeze. The ice-pack broke, became intersected in every
direction by lanes of water, and began to drift out to sea, carrying
with it more than two hundred of the hardy hunters. Many of these were
rescued by steamers, but others were borne away into the fog, beyond the
hope of rescue, far out to sea, where they have perished fro