of them suddenly shot up out of the water and on to the ice.  They looked about them in surprise for a moment:  men and ships do not come their way every day.  But it seemed as if their astonishment soon gave way to a desire to see what was happening.  They positively sat and studied all our movements.  Only now and then they grunted a little and took a turn over the ice.  What specially interested them was evidently our work at digging holes in the snow for the grapnels.  They flocked about the men who were engaged in this, laid their heads on one side, and looked as if they found it immensely interesting.  They did not appear to be the least afraid of us, and for the most part we left them in peace.  But some of them had to lose their lives; we wanted them for our collection.

An exciting seal-hunt took place the same day.  Three crab-eaters had ventured to approach the ship, and were marked down to increase our store of fresh meat.  We picked two mighty hunters to secure the prey for us; they approached with the greatest caution, though this was altogether unnecessary, for the seals lay perfectly motionless.  They crept forward in Indian fashion, with their heads down and their backs bent.  This looks fine; I chuckle and laugh, but still with a certain decorum.  Then there is a report.  Two of the sleeping seals give a little spasm, and do not move again.  It is otherwise with the third.  With snakelike movements it wriggles away through the loose snow with surprising speed.  It is no longer target practice, but hunting real game, and the result is in keeping with it.  Bang! bang! and bang again.  It is a good thing we have plenty of ammunition.  One of the hunters uses up all his cartridges and has to go back, but the other sets off in pursuit of the game.  Oh, how I laughed!  Decorum was no longer possible; I simply shook with laughter.  Away they went through the loose snow, the seal first and the hunter after.  I could see by the movements of the pursuer that he was furious.  He saw that he was in for something which he could not come out of with dignity.  The seal made off at such a pace that it filled the air with snow.  Although the snow was fairly deep and loose, the seal kept on the surface.  Not so the hunter:  he sank over the knees at every step, and in a short time was completely outdistanced.  From time to time he halted, aimed, and fired.  He himself afterwards asserted that every shot had hit.  I had my doubts.  In any case the seal seemed to take no notice of them, for it went on with undiminished speed.  At last the mighty man gave up and turned back.  “Beastly hard to kill,” I heard him say, as he came on board.  I suppressed a smile —­ did not want to hurt the fellow’s feelings.