1915] TO RENSSELAER HARBOR 145 



go with Ekblaw, very much discouraged over the con- 

 dition of their dogs; they didn't think they could take 

 the trip. Upon my suggestion that they permit their 

 dogs to rest for a week or so, promising to trade for and 

 provide meat, they felt better and agreed to start on 

 schedule time. 



The Eskimos gather here every spring after they have 

 used up all their cached meat, to hunt walrus and 

 bearded seal in the open water offshore. It is the great 

 annual picnic of the tribe, where stories of the hunt are 

 told and retold by the long, black-haired warriors; 

 where the latest gossip is punctuated with sly winks and 

 bursts of laughter from the chewing women; where 

 games are played and stunts performed by red-cheeked, 

 foxskin-clad, laughing children. 



It was between forty and fifty below for ten days, 

 and yet the children laughed and played, apparently as 

 unconcerned as our children upon a summer day. When 

 meat is plentiful I can imagine this to be by far the 

 happiest time of the year, and I can see them reluc- 

 tantly packing their sledges in April to separate, p>er- 

 haps for the year, for their respective homes a hundred 

 miles apart; and to remain separated until hunger again 

 brings them to Peteravik. 



Every favorable day found the men and boys far out 

 at the edge of the ice, watching the surface of the 

 black, smoking leads, ready to battle royally for rich, 

 red meat. Great, fierce-looking heads break the sur- 

 face, the powerful ivory-white tusks standing out in 

 strong contrast against the massive black necks. The 

 fur-clad hunters, with harpoons tightly gripped in their 

 right hands and coils of rawhide lines in their left, whis- 

 per excitedly, crouch, and emit, in imitation, the dis- 



