422 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



weather cleared. Others worked in the near-by 

 hills 



Sipsu brought me a live young fox which he caught 

 at this time, but I had no place to keep it and care 

 for it properly, and was compelled to decline it. He 

 promptly killed it, and his kooner used the fur to 

 make clothing for the piccaninnies. It had a very 

 soft coat of dark bluish color. 



In spite of the promising outlook for good weather 

 the wind was so uncertain, accompanied with flurries 

 of snow, that it was deemed unsafe to risk walrus- 

 hunting, which would have taken us far from land. 

 After three or four days lying about camp, I could 

 endure inactivity no longer, and had some of the 

 Eskimos launch the boat for a run to the head of 

 the harbor after little auks. 



We had covered only part of the distance when 

 heavy squalls set in, coming over the hills and hit- 

 ting us from nearly every point of the compass, forc- 

 ing us for safety to lower the sail, and with bare 

 mast I could scarcely guide the boat. The wind 

 picked up the water in bucketfulls, driving it into 

 our faces in foam and spray until it blinded us, and 

 I was compelled to make for the nearest land to wait 

 for the squalls to pass. Here we hauled the boat 

 twenty-five yards back upon the beach, where there 

 was a bed of thick moss, turned it over and lashed it 

 down with ropes made fast to rocks so that the wind 

 could not move it. 



There was no sheltered spot for the tent and we 



