When they go whale catching, they put on their best gear or apparel, as if they were going to a wedding feast, fancying that if they did not come cleanly and neatly dressed, the whale, who cannot bear slovenly and dirty habits, would shun them and fly from them. This is the manner of their expedition: about fifty persons, men and women, set out together in one of the large boats, called kone boat; the women carry along with them their sewing tackles, consisting of needles and thread, to sew and mend their husbands’ spring coats, or jackets, if they should be torn or pierced through, as also to mend the boat, in case it should receive any damage; the men go in search of the whale, and when they have found him they strike him with their harpoons, to which are fastened lines or straps two or three fathoms long, made of seal skin, at the end of which they tie a bag of a whole seal skin, filled with air, like a bladder; to the end that the whale, when he finds himself wounded, and runs away with the harpoon, may the sooner be tired, the air bag hindering him from keeping long under water. When he grows tired and loses strength, they attack him again with their spears and lances, till he is killed, and then they put on their spring coats, made of dressed seal skin, all of one piece, with boots, gloves, and caps, sewed and laced so tight together that no water can penetrate them. In this garb they jump into the sea, and begin to slice the fat of him all round the body, even under the water; for in these coats they cannot sink, as they are always full of air; so that they can, like the seal, stand upright in the sea: nay they are sometimes so daring, that they will get upon the whale’s back while there is yet life in him, to make an end of him and cut away his fat. They go much the same way to work in killing of seals, except that the harpoon is lesser, to which is fastened a line of seal skin six or seven fathoms long, at the end of which is a bladder or bag made of a small seal skin filled with air to keep the seal, when he is wounded, from diving under the water, and being lost again. In the Northern parts, where the sea is all frozen over in the winter, they use other means in catching of seals. They first look out for holes, which the seals themselves make with their claws, about the bigness of a halfpenny, that they may fetch their breath; after they have found any hole, they seat themselves near it upon a chair made for this purpose; and as soon as they perceive the seal come up to the hole and put his snout into it for some air, they immediately strike him with a small harpoon, which they have ready in their hand, to which harpoon is fastened a strap a fathom long, which they hold with the other hand. After he is struck, and cannot escape, they cut the hole so large, that they may get him up through it; and as soon as they have got his head above the ice, they can kill him with one blow of the fist.