MURDOCH.] ICE FISHING. 283 



1st of February, and continues when the ice is favorable until/the season 

 is so far advanced that the ice has begun to melt and become rotten. The 

 fish are especially to be found in places where there is a good-sized 

 field of the season s ice, 3 or 4 feet thick, inclosed by hummocks, and 

 they sometimes occur in very great numbers. In 1882 there was a large 

 field of this kind about 2 miles from the village and the fishing was 

 carried on with great success, but in 188.3 the ice was so much broken 

 that the fish were, very scarce. Some lads caught a few early in the 

 season, but the fishery was soon abandoned. 



A hole about a foot in diameter is made through the ice with an ice 

 pick, and the fragments dipped out either with the long-handled whale 

 bone scoop, or the little dipper made of two pieces of antler mounted 

 on a handle about 2 feet long, which everybody carries in the winter. 

 The line is unreeled and let down through the hole till the jigs hang 

 about a foot from the bottom. The fisherman holds in his left hand the 

 dipper above mentioned, with which he keeps the hole clear of the ice 

 crystals, which form very quickly, ami in his right the reel which he 

 jerks con tin ually up and down . The fish, attracted by the white j iggers, 

 begin nosing around them, when the upward jerk of the line hooks one 

 of them in the under jaw or the belly. As soon as the fisherman feels 

 the fish, he catches a bight of the line with the scoop in his left hand 

 and draws it over to the left; then catches the line below this with the 

 reel and draws it over to the right, and so on, thus reeling the line up 

 in long hanks on these two sticks, without touching the wet line with 

 his fingers. 



When the fish is brought to the surface of the ice, he is detached from 

 the barbless hook with a dextrous jerk, and almost instantly freezes solid. 

 The elastic whalebone line is thrown off the stick without kinking and 

 let down again through the hole. When fish are plentiful, they are caught 

 as fast as they can be hauled up, sometimes one on each &quot;jigger.&quot; If 

 the fisherman finds no fish at the first hole he moves to another part of 

 the field and tries again until he succeeds in &quot;striking a school.&quot; The 

 fish vury in abundance on different days, being sometimes so plentiful 

 that I have known two or three children to catch a bushel in a few hours, 

 while some days very few are to be taken. In addition to the polar 

 cod, a few sculpins are also caught, and occasionally the two species of 

 Lycodes (L. turnerii and coccineus) which voracious fish sometimes seize 

 the little polar cod struggling on the &quot;jigger&quot; and are thus caught 

 themselves. This fishery is chiefly carried on by the women, children, 

 and old men, who go out in parties of five or six, though the hunters 

 sometimes go fishing when they have nothing else to do. There were 

 generally thirty or forty people out at the fishing-ground every day in 

 1882. 



Jiggers of this pattern appear to be used at Pitlekaj, from Nordeuds- 

 kiold s description, but I have seen no account either there or elsewhere 



Vega, vol. 2, p. 110. 



