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In the old days, before kayaks were obtained, the summer 

 had to be passed on one of the gfrounds frequented by birds, 

 where life could be maintained at any rate until the ice-hunt- 

 ing began again. The Eskimos are not now so firmly bound 

 to such localities ; what they now seek for are the places where 

 the sea-mammals occur and where at the same time the sea 

 is calm in the shelter behind land and ice-fields. These con- 

 ditions are found inside in Cape York Bay, as also inside the 

 groups of islands at the mouths of Wolstenholm Sound and 

 Inglefield Gulf. At Cape York the white whale (Beluga) , nar- 

 whal and seals (bearded seal and fjord seal) are almost the 

 only forms in the summer hunting, whilst at the two other 

 places as also at a third place right up at Etah, the walrus is 

 also present, as it has its summer haunts there at a certain 

 depth of water, where it lives upon the shell-fish of the bottom. 



It is not the case here as in South Greenland, that the 

 settlements at the open sea are placed on the outer side of 

 the fringe of islands, Avhere the open water is always near and 

 where the hunter can approach nearer the seals when the 

 water is rough than when it is smooth. Nor is the kayak of 

 the Polar Eskimos like the light, elegant boat of the South 

 Greenlander; it is clumsy, heavy and open, the hunter sitting 

 in an open space, whereas in South Greenland he becomes one 

 with his boat by means of a closely fitting fur-skin. The kayak, 

 which has become the main apparatus of the subarctic Eskimos, 

 is of quite subordinate importance among the Polar Eskimos, 

 whose main apparatus is the dog-sledge. 



The places now preferred by the Polar Eskimos for the 

 months of July, August and September are in the main the 

 same as the winter dwelling-places at Cape York and Etah and 

 those which lie in the mouths of the two large indentations. 

 Some of the principal conditions for a summer settlement are 

 in fact the same as the conditions for setting up their winter 

 dwellings. In both cases they require calm and sheltered 



