384 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH 



twoscore seals and half a hundred sharks during the 

 season. 



This catching seals in nets is not practised by the 

 Eskimos of the Smith Sound tribe, but in Danish Green- 

 land the Eskimos use the method assiduously through- 

 out the length of the coast every fall and spring. It is 

 practicable only when, at least for part of the day, not 

 enough light passes through the ice to permit the seals 

 seeing the nets hanging downward into the water. 



The nets are about fifteen feet long and eight feet 

 wide, with a six-inch mesh. They are made of strong 

 twine. They are suspended underneath the ice, across 

 some lead which the seals follow to and fro to find 

 openings to come up to the surface to breathe. The 

 Eskimos dig holes in the ice, through which they hang 

 the nets at right angles to the lead. To dig these holes 

 and to keep them open requires considerable time and 

 work. Even the most active and industrious of the 

 Eskimos finds it hard to care properly for more than 

 sixteen nets. 



In the most favorable season an Eskimo often finds 

 half a dozen, or even more, seals in his net each day, 

 and then he lives well indeed, for he uses the meat for 

 food and exchanges the skin and blubber with the 

 trader for sugar, coffee, oatmeal, rye flour, tobacco, 

 cloth, ammunition, or some of the other commodities 

 he can obtain. Often, however, unfavorable ice con- 

 ditions prevail and the catch of seals is small, occasioning 

 poverty, malnutrition, and even starvation. When, as 

 sometimes happens, the ice goes out, carrying all the 

 nets with it, the loss is so heavy that the Eskimos 

 incur debts to the station to such an extent that they 

 require years to discharge them. 



