1914] WORK AT BORUP LODGE 107 



the centuries, and is soon busily engaged in sweeping 

 the air, swinging the long twelve-foot pole, terminating 

 in a dip-net some fifteen inches in diameter, for hours 

 and hours, often netting with one sweep ten and twelve 

 birds. In the mean time, the children, early trained in 

 accuracy of stone-throwing, are continually adding their 

 quota, or can be seen, feet and legs up, fairly standing 

 on their heads in their endeavor to reach the single 

 white egg deposited deep in the rocks. 



Many of these birds are eaten raw on the spot, each 

 Eskimo consuming ten and twelve; and many are boiled 

 in soapstone and iron kettles; while thousands are 

 cached, uncleaned, to season for the midwinter feasts. 

 The skins are sucked to remove the fat, softened by 

 rubbing, and then cut and sewed together into warm 

 birdskin shirts once so common, but now replaced by 

 the white man's shirt of the trade-list. 



May, June, July, and August are the harvest days, 

 for "the time cometh when no man can work." Active, 

 energetic, full of life and the love of life, the Smith 

 Sound native is out of bed, kayak launched, and away, 

 his piercing, dark-brown eyes, set in a frame of straight, 

 jet-black hair, noting every ripple or movement upon 

 the water; he is in search of the walrus. It is a won- 

 derful sight to see the flash and dip of that paddle, the 

 speed of that black, clean-cut body, the graceful curve 

 of the flying harpoon, the mighty splash of a large herd 

 of monster walrus! 



It is not sport to shoot musk-oxen rounded up by 

 your dogs and huddling and trembling with fear. Nor 

 is it sport to pump a bullet into the silvery-white body 

 of a polar bear held at bay by fifty and sixty dogs. 



Necessity for meat is one's only excuse for such slaughter. 



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