The Hickman Courier

The Ungainly Hooded Seal.

An interesting denizen of the ice-fields off the Greenland and Labrador coasts is the stemmatopus, or hooded seal. This is an ungainly beast, often larger than an ox. He lies in a great heap on the ice, and is much the color of soot. On days when the sun is strong, as the spring advances, the oil fairly oozes out of his glistening skin. I have sometimes seen him lying so still, and bathed in his perspiration of oil, that I imagine him dead, and "rendering" out in the heat. The seal-hunters call him the "dog hood," because he has a huge hood or membrane consisting of blubber and a tough tissue, several inches thick, which in the twinkling of an eye he can draw over his head. He is then safe from all ordinary assault, being shielded all over the body by several inches thick of blubber or fat, through which the heavy shot of the seal-hunters' guns can not reach vital parts. The greenhorn delights to capture the pelt of a dog hood, but the experienced hunter is just as content to let the ugly brute alone.—Harper's Young People.