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For Parley's Magazine.

THE DISCONTENTED ROBINS.-BY MISS MARY A. FOX.
(Concluded from page 361, Vol. vii.)

'HERE
ERE we are, dear mother, all ready
for the rest of the story,' said Wil-
liam, as the children gathered again round
the bright fire; and I have no lesson to
learn to-night; so you can begin earlier
than you did last night, and we can
hear more.'

'Very well, I am ready to tell, and you must remember all I say about Greenland. What was I to tell you to-night?'

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About catching seals,' said George. 'Ah, yes, I recollect. The principal occupation of the Greenlander is sealcatching, and a man is esteemed and admired among them, in proportion to the number of seals he has taken.

As soon as a young man is thought strong enough to make his first attempt, he sets forth in his kaiak, a little boat six yards long, a foot deep, and a foot

and a half wide. The top is covered with skins fastened tightly to both sides of the boat.'

'Why, mother, what a queer boat! so long, and so narrow; and pray does the man sit on the top? I should think he would fall off.'

'You should not interrupt me, George. If you had waited a moment, you would have learned the manner in which the hardy Greenlander gets into his strangelooking boat.

In the middle of the covering is a round hole, sufficiently large to admit his body; it has a rim of bone, or wood; and he puts his feet through it and sits down in the bottom of the boat, the rim coming a little above his hips; and to prevent the water from getting in, he tucks the skirts of his great coat tightly round him. By

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the side of the fisherman lies his harpoon, he carries it home to make a great feast, and in front of him is his line, coiled up to which he invites all his relations and on a little round seat. He holds his oar in both hands, and strikes the water on each side alternately, with great regularity and rapidity; and so fast can he row in his little kaiak, that he can go sixty or seventy miles in a day. Another kind of canoe is sometimes used, made of seal or hippopotamus skins sewed together.

When the seal-fisher sets out, he is very careful that his harpoon, with the line attached to it, is laid in the right place; and, as soon as he spies a seal, he takes the oar in his left hand, that he may throw the harpoon with his right.

As soon as the poor seal is pierced with the sharp harpoon, he dives with it, and, in so doing, unwinds the line at tached to it, and which has a large bladder filled with air fastened to the other end.

The Greenlander keeps watch of the seal, and rows to the spot where the bladder is floating on the top of the water, and when the seal comes up to take breath, he despatches him with a lance.

If it be the first seal he has ever taken,

neighbors. While they partake of the entertainment provided for them, the young seal-fisher relates the difficulties and dangers he has escaped, and the manner in which he caught the seal; and from this time he is considered a man, and the women begin to think of providing him with a wife; but the unfortunate youth who has neither skill nor courage to catch seals, is despised and ridiculed by all; he is obliged to eat woman's food, and no man will associate with him.

As seal catching is the principal basiness of the Greenlander, and he supports his family by it, his highest ambition is to become skilful in the art. They generally begin when they are fifteen; and their fathers, or some persons older and more experienced than themselves, go with them, to assist them; for sometimes they are in great danger, either from lcsing the oar, or getting their boats or some part of their own person entangled in the rope as it unwinds; and frequently the dying seal, especially if it be a female and has young, attacks them with the greatest fury, upsets the boat and perhaps kills or drowns the unfortunate fisherman.

There are several other methods of catching seals; one of which is called the clapper hunt, and is very much liked by the young people, as they all go clapping their hands and pounding about and making all the noise they possibly can; and the poor quiet seals, who do not like such

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a racket, are soon so tired and frightened seal instead of iron, which they could not

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Would you be willing to live in indolence, and eat the food which others had procured at the hazard of their lives, rather than encounter danger or endure fatigue, to earn your own living? I should be sorry to think you so selfish. The brave Greenlander thinks no hardship too great to endure, for the sake of taking a creature so valuable. The flesh of the seal is their principal food; of the insid in they make windows, curtains for the tents in which they live in summer, their under garments, and the bladders which they affix to their harpoons. Of the outside skin they make clothing, coverings for their boats, and carpets for their floors. The fat likewise is used to make oil for their lamps to give light during the dark winter, and of the sinews they make thread; and a long time ago, before ships visited them as frequently as they do now, they used the bones of the

procure, to make all their various tools, and knives and forks; so you perceive of how much use the seal is to the Greenlander.

I think, my dear children, I have now told you all that will be interesting about this cold country, except that the people are remarkable for affectionate dispositions, and the children for their love and respect of their parents, and they are so gentle and obedient that they seldom need punishment.

If you would like to know more about Greenland, you will find accounts of the manner of living, and all their festivals and amusements, in several books which I will lend you from your father's library. I read almost all the particulars I have told you in a book called Goldsmith's Manners and Customs of most, if not all, the nations in the world.

Now, mother, do tell us about the other robin; what he found at the south, and all that happened to him.'

" The other robin arrived at the old apple-tree a few days after his friend; and after resting himself, and listening to the account of the winter in Greenland, he gave a description of his own adventures.

When they parted at this tree a year before, he directed his flight to the south, and, after a flight of several days, he descended from his airy course, and alighted on an orange tree, in a beautiful valley in Brazil, which is, you know, in South America. He gazed with admira

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