300 



for the Eskimos. During this period "there is no regular sleep 

 in an Eskimo camp; day and night are spent abroad when the 

 weather is good. A constantly burning fire summons the 

 people together at the public feeding-places of the camp , and 

 the constant interchange of men going to the hunt and others 

 returning maintains life and interest round about the fire at 

 all times of the day and night" ^. 



The bird-hunting is carried on late in May and in the 

 course of June, and stores of birds are laid in, which entire 

 and with the feathers on are laid in blubber in a seal-skin, 

 also eggs, which are kept under small stone-heaps. In the old 

 days the whole summer had to be passed on one or other of 

 the birds-grounds, and these localities are still places of resort 

 for one or other poor and incapable family or for women, who 

 for some reason have lost their providers. 



In this systematic review of the changes which take place 

 with the seasons in the industrial culture of the Polar Eskimos, 

 some interesting and important features of their hunting-life 

 have not yet been described , for the reason that they are not 

 of regular occurrence each year for all the hunters. These are 

 especially the hunting of the polar bear and musk-ox. 



The places frequented for the polar bear hunting are Mel- 

 ville Bay and Kane Basin at the Humboldt Glacier. The great 

 extent of these hunting journeys to the southwards has already 

 been mentioned. The season at which they are undertaken is 

 the polar spring. Any one who intends to go bear hunting 

 must make his preparations already in the previous year, 

 in so far as he must obtain several dogs and train them 

 specially to face the bears. The hunting itself requires the 

 dog-sledges , the track of a bear being followed until the bear 

 is sighted ; the dogs are then let loose and surround the fleeing 

 bear, keeping it back until the hunter can come up with it. 



^ Knud Rasmussen, 1. с. p. 46. 



