came next time, I gave him a heavy thrust with the sharp end of it. But
this did not kill him by any means, nor did he give me another chance
for some time. Then, however, he was almost dead with bleeding, and
fright, and hard struggling to get away, to say nothing of holding his
breath so long; but I wanted him too badly to have any mercy on him, so
I worked away as hard as I could to get in all the line, so that the
seal could not sink down through the hole any more.

[Illustration: Ingenuity is rewarded, and "Old Crumply" distinguished.]

"At last I was successful, and the seal was fast in the hole, and with
all his struggling he could not get away. With the aid of 'Old Crumply,'
I now quickly made an end of him. As soon as he was dead, we drew him
out on the ice, and rejoiced over him. Such shouting never was before
known, at least in that part of the world. If anybody could have heard
and seen us, we should have surely been taken up for insane people,
especially the Dean, whose joy knew no bounds.

"Having no sledge, we had to drag the dead seal over the ice and snow,
for which purpose we made the line fast through his nose. It was no easy
task to get him to the hut; and, when we did at last succeed, we found
that the seal was partly frozen, so that we were obliged to draw it
inside the hut, and then thaw it, before we could get the skin off,
which made the hut very disagreeable. After the skin and blubber were
removed, we cut off some of the flesh, and made for ourselves a good hot
supper,--first cooking a stew in our soapstone pot, and then frying some
steaks on a flat stone; and if anything was before wanting to make us
perfectly happy over the capture of so great a prize, we had it now,
when we discovered what excellent food it was, and what a quantity there
was of it.

"When we had finished butchering the seal, we prepared the skin for
making boots; and we put the blubber and flesh away in our storehouses
for future use,--the flesh for food, and the blubber for our fire and
lamp. Then we slept, and the very next day we set out to catch more
seals, without, however, the same success, for we were unfortunate in
every attempt; and it was, indeed, almost a week, I think, before we
made a second capture. Some time afterward we caught a third, and then a
fourth, and by great good fortune on the very same day a fifth; and not
long after that we caught another, which made the sixth.

"But it would have been well