WINTER FISHERY. 81 



Every second or third day, fishermen who are 

 careful take their nets out of the water to dry 

 and repair them. If this be not attended to, 

 the threads swell and rot and few fish enter the 

 meshes; the floats also become water-logged if 

 not often dried. In severe weather, the fisherman 

 erects a canvass or skin screen to windward, to 

 shelter him while he overhauls his nets. Eskimo 

 snow barricades are much more effective, but pride 

 will not permit the Orkney or Canadian fisherman 

 to turn the useful expedients of the Eskimos to 

 account. 



In the winter, Albert built a snow wall very 

 neatly round the water-hole by which the fort was 

 supplied, to keep off the snow drifts, cut steps 

 through the ice down to the water, and then fitted 

 to the aperture a light snow-lid, that could be 

 easily removed. By this contrivance the water- 

 hole required little clearing for a week, and the 

 convenience was great ; but after the first admi- 

 ration of his ingenuity subsided, the cover was 

 thrown aside, and the hole allowed to fill up with 

 snow-drift. The consequence of this neglect was, 

 that the first man or woman who went for water 

 in the morning had half an hour's hard work to 

 procure it, and then it was necessary to remove all 

 the impurities left by the dogs which had resorted 

 there to drink on the preceding day. 



VOL. II. G 



