AND KAYAK 37 



bubbling merrily, over the flame. From time 

 to time she picked up a spike of bone which lay 

 beside her, and poked the wick. This seemed 

 to be all the attention the lamp needed. On 

 the floor I saw a pot of seal s blubber, from 

 which the oil was oozing. From this she could 

 easily fill the lamp if it should burn low. I 

 warrant she licks her fingers after the filling ; 

 and more than that, if she happens to fill the 

 trough of the lamp too full I can well imagine 

 her taking a few sips. 



I could not do much more than look into 

 Bob s tent ; there was no room. The floor was 

 strewn with relics of work and of meal-times ; 

 scraps of sealskin, fish-bones, chips of wood, 

 bits of calico, either flung down as useless or 

 left by the children when we interrupted their 

 play. A fat, pale-faced baby was crawling 

 about, exercising its sturdy limbs before re 

 turning to that queerest of queer cradles, the 

 hood of its mother s smock. It found a bone, 

 and squatted to gnaw it, cutting its teeth and 

 acquiring a taste for the fishy flavour of seal 

 meat at the same time. A family of pups 

 romped and tumbled and snarled in their own 

 corner ; and all around the edge of the tent lay 

 dogs harness, spare clothing, sails for the boat, 

 and pots of seal meat and fish heads. 



And Bob was proud of his calico home. 



