WINTER QUARTERS 



125 



the service of the knife for skinning the fish can be dispensed 

 with. Then the teeth are used, and the skin is pulled off the 

 fish in two parts. The belly is cut open, the entrails are 

 broken out, and, again making use of the knife, they peel off long 

 slices of the meat. These slices they eat, and every now and 

 then they dip the fingers of their left hand in a tin can of seal 

 oil, lick, them, and 

 with a loud smack 

 resume the occupa- 

 tion of peeling. 



They invited me to 

 partake of their meal, 

 but their way of eat- 

 ing it looked too 

 revolting and I de- 

 clined, much to my 

 friends' relief ; but 

 had I known then as 

 I did later the really 

 excellent taste of a 

 frozen salmon, there 

 is little doubt that I would have taken my share of their 

 gorgeous repast. 



Kreeseek and Topsia started out for the skins on the follow- 

 ing day, but before long they returned with faces and wrists 

 badly frozen, as they had been overtaken by a blizzard the 

 moment they came round the first bend of the river. 



Where we were the weather was beautiful, perfectly clear, and 

 30 C. cold. The mountains were towering over our heads, 

 and the sound of falling water was the only noise in the great 

 frozen country. A waterfall was close to the house and I went 

 up the river to have a look at it. A cloud of vapour hovered 

 over the roaring waters and the rivulet which sprang out at the 

 foot of the nearest mountain. Large icicles were hanging from 

 the rocks about the waterfall and from the brushwood near it, 

 and the rays of the rapidly setting sun were lending a golden 

 tint to the water and the vapour above it. The water from the 

 fall disappeared underneath the ice, which in this neighbour- 

 hood is very .thin or open all the year round. Most of that and 

 the following day, November 12, I spent in the tent of my 



TOPSIA AND KREESEEK. 



