THE SPRING AWAKENING 339 



like the real thing, and tasted very well, though heavy 

 as lead, and resulted in a bad case of indigestion. 



The storm blew over after a couple of days, and 

 the sun broke out again warm and bright, melting 

 the snow on the hills in streams which poured down 

 to the sea in sparkling silver threads, and loosened 

 rocks and earth, causing frequent landslides. Often 

 we were startled by the thunderous roar of debris 

 torn loose from the mountain-sides and leaving great 

 patches and wide paths of bared earth to mark the 

 course of a slide. 



The shack was so very wet and uncomfortable that 

 even the Eskimos now warned me against remaining 

 in it as unhealthf ul. I therefore pitched my tent on 

 a dry spot a short distance from it, where I took 

 up my sleeping quarters. This proved a very great 

 improvement over the gloomy shack. 



The Eskimos were incessantly hunting. Some of 

 them came in nearly every day with great sacks of 

 little auks. I saw Oxpuddyshou and Kulutinguah 

 return at one time with five large sacks filled with the 

 birds. This was the harvest-time the time of 

 plenty. Sea and land were teeming with live things. 

 One day Tukshu asked me to go in a dory with some 

 of them duck shooting. The other members of the 

 party were Abidinguah, Ilabrado and Etukishuk. 

 I took with me twenty-five cartridges and killed fif- 

 teen eider ducks and two looms. 



The Eskimos had provided themselves with har- 

 poon and lances in the hope of killing walrus, and 

 while we were working to the southward through 



