186 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



could be so cold as Labrador could be so 

 comfortably warm as it sometimes was on 

 days in the summer-time. Warm days did 

 not come very often, and however much we 

 English folk may have liked them, they were 

 very unwelcome to the Eskimos. They would 

 rather have the cold, any day. Poor things, 

 they were prostrate with the heat, panting for 

 air, while we were just enjoying the warmth 

 of the sunshine. On warm days like that the 

 boys spent their time in the sea. 



They had a queer way of bathing : they 

 just walked into the water, boots and clothes 

 and all, and tumbled about. 



They could not swim, but they were cool, 

 and that was the main thing to their minds. 

 " What a dreadful place England must be," 

 they said, when I told them that our summer 

 was ever so much warmer than theirs. " How 

 marvellous to be hotter than this ! Dread- 

 ful ! " And so they spent their warm days, 

 perched upon a stone in their wet clothes, or 

 wallowing in the shallow sea, as long as the 

 sun was high ; and when the cool of the even- 

 ing came they ran about the beach in their 

 wet clothes until they were dry. 



Summer does not last long in Labrador : 

 at the best it is no more than eight weeks 

 of days that are pleasantly warm, and the 



