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CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



country ; thus an educated girl becomes the squaw of some 

 Eskimo and is obliged to do his sewing, to scrape and tan his 

 skins, to be the mother of his children, and, in short, to live the 

 life of the ordinary Eskimo woman. I have met .one of those 

 half-bred women, the squaw of a native, who, while she was 



NATIVE WOMAN CLEANING A SEAL-SKIN. 



cooking some seal meat and repairing some boots, was talking 

 literature with me and reciting Byron ! 



But the boom on Herschel Island was only of short duration, 

 and now there are hardly any ships wintering there. Quiet 

 has settled on the once lively place, the Mounted Police go 

 about to keep order where there is no disorder, and the women, 

 spoiled bodily and mentally by their insatiable cravings for the 

 luxuries they had a few years ago, are dragging on a miserable 

 existence. 



The whalers come for a few days in the summer to loaf about 

 and to trade. But for the Eskimos the days of plenty are over ; 

 they have to hunt on a country where ruthless slaughter has 





