CUMBERLAND SOUND AND ITS ESKIMOS. 771 



is over. The whale-boats must be got ready for the spring fishing. 

 New Eskimos, who have been engaged by the station for the next 

 month, come down daily, with their families and all their goods, to 

 take up their abodes at Kikkerton, The boats are dug out from the 

 deep snow, the oars and sails are looked after, the harpoons are cleaned 

 up and sharpened, and everything is in busy preparation. The boats 

 are made as comfortable as possible, with awnings and level floors, for 

 their crews are not to come to the shore again for about six weeks. 



By the beginning of May, the arrangements having been com- 

 pleted, the boats are put upon the sledges, and, under the direction of 

 native drivers, are drawn by dog-teams, with their crews, to the edge 

 of the ice. The sledges being heavily laden, and food for the dogs 

 having to be provided by hunting, the day's stages are short. Arrived 

 at the floe-edge, the sledges are unloaded and the boats are launched. 

 Here is a profusion of seals and birds of all kinds, and the chase is 

 opened without delay upon everything that is useful and can be shot. 

 Sledges are regularly sent back to Kikkerton with skins and meats for 

 the families of the Eskimos, while the blubber is packed in tubs 

 which are kept ready on the spot. 



The most important object of the expedition is the whale. Har- 

 poons and lines are always in readiness for the contest with the mighty 

 monster. The whale-fishery has been so often described that I pass 

 over the already well-enough known details of the exciting chase. 

 The peculiar circumstances in the sound, give to the capture here a 

 character which is exhibited in no other region. The boats go back 

 to the north with the breaking up of the ice, and the fishing closes in 

 July. The Eskimos are paid off and dismissed, and resume their 

 reindeer-hunting, while the whites are glad to enjoy some rest after 

 weeks of exhausting labor. 



Unless the results of the whale-fishery improve within a short 

 time, the period can not be far distant when the last of the whites 

 will abandon the unprofitable land. Then the Eskimos, who can no 

 longer live without powder and shot, will be compelled to remove 

 from the sound and make their home on the shores of Davis" Strait, 

 which is visited every year by ships ; and Cumberland Sound may, 

 perhaps, become more desolate than it was before its apparently inex- 

 haustible richness in whales attracted whole fleets to its waters, and 

 gave the region an important place in the world's trade. 



When our ship, the German schooner Germania, was about to enter 

 the port of Kikkerton in the summer of 1883, there came a boat-load 

 of Eskimos to offer us their help. I had not formed a good opinion of 

 the appearance of these people, but I was really astonished at the fig- 

 ures I saw. The little bandy-legged fellows who ran laughing and. 

 chewing over the deck of the vessel, with their long black hair, flat 

 faces, and dripping eyes, made an extremely repulsive impression ; and 

 when we were visited by a boat-load of women, among whom were a 



