VOYAGE TO THE BAY 9 
in hollows of the rocks on the hill behind the houses. the 
neighbourhood is overrun with dogs, and as the natives often 
build their snow houses directly over the ponds, the quality of 
the water is very bad, and probably accounts for much of the 
sickness prevalent here. 
The mission is under the charge of the rev. Mr. Peck, who 
for many years has devoted his life to the instruction and 
welfare of the Eskimo about Hudson bay, and, of late years, on 
Baffin island. He is ably assisted by two younger men, both 
of whom have had medical training. The headquarters of the 
mission are at Blacklead, from which place the missionaries 
travel, several times a year, to Kekerten, on the north side of 
the gulf, and to Cape Haven, on Cyrus Field bay, to the south. 
In this manner all the natives of the southeastern part of baffin 
island are reached. The work of combating ancient supersti- 
tions has been hard and slow, but the results of the mission are 
beginning to tell, and the natives are now taking rapidly to the 
teaching and precept of the missionaries. The total number 
of Eskimos reached is about five hundred, and they are all 
connected with, and depend upon, the whaling stations of 
Blacklead, Kekerten and Cape Haven. 
During the summer months all the able-bodied men, with 
some of the women and children, proceed to the head of the 
bays, and thence far inland, to hunt the barren-ground caribou, 
to secure a supply of skins for winter clothing and bedding. 
They are absent until September. On their return they are 
employed at the whale fishery until the gulf freezes fast, 
usually early in December. During the remainder of the 
winter, they maintain themselves by harpooning seal through 
breathing-holes in the solid ice, or by killing them in the open 
water, at the edge of the floe. Whaling is resumed in March 
and continues until the ice breaks up; then the seal hunt begins 
and ends only when the time arrives to go inland again. 
