as they could, with a
tremendous splash. In a few minutes they all came up again, putting
their cunning-looking heads out of the water, all around the boat, no
doubt as curious to see what these singular-looking beings were that had
come amongst them, as the Indians were about Columbus and his Spaniards,
when they first came to America.

"As soon as we had reached the ice, we sprang out of the boat on to it,
and, after digging a hole into it with a long, sharp bar of iron, called
an ice-chisel, we put therein one end of a large, heavy, crooked hook,
called an ice-anchor, and then to a ring in the other end of this
ice-anchor we made fast the end of the rope that we had brought with us.
This done, we signalled to the people on board to 'haul in,' which they
did on their end of the rope, and in a little while the ship was drawn
close up to the ice. Then another rope was run out over the stern of the
ship, and, this being made fast to an ice-anchor in the same way as the
other, the ship was soon drawn up with her whole broadside close to the
ice, as snug as if she were lying alongside of a dock in New Bedford.

"And now began the seal-hunt. It would not interest you to hear all
about the preparations we made, first to catch the seals, and then to
preserve the skins and try out the oil from the blubber, and put it away
in barrels. For this latter duty some of the crew were selected, while
others were sent off to kill and bring in the seals. These latter were
chosen with a view to their activity, and I, being supposed to be of
that sort, was one of the party. I was glad enough, I can assure you, to
get off the vessel for once on to something firm and solid, even if it
was only ice, and at least for a little while to have done with rocking
and rolling about over the waves.

"Each one of the seal-catchers was armed with a short club for killing
the seals, and a rope to drag them over the ice to the ship. We
scattered in every direction, our object being each by himself to
approach a group of seals, and, coming upon them as noiselessly as
possible, to kill as many of them as we could before they should all
take fright and rush into the sea. In order to do this, we were obliged
to steal up between the seals and the water as far as possible.

"My first essay at this novel business was ridiculous enough, and,
besides nearly causing my death, overwhelmed me with mortification. It
happened thus. I made at a large herd of seals, n