ESKIMOS 157 



During the month of June the weather is generally fine, and 

 ducks and geese are plentiful in the open water of the ponds 

 and sea. The ice becomes very rotten towards the end of the 

 month, and soon after breaks away from the shores, when the 

 kyaks come into use. This is the most pleasant season of the 

 year for the Eskimos, and they always sing about its pleasures 

 in their sing-songs to be described later. Game of all kinds is 

 abundant; the deer come to the coast at this season; seals are 

 plentiful in the open water, and walruses are floating about on 

 the loose ice; the Arctic salmon swarm in the shallow water 

 along the coast, and thousands of eggs of the sea fowl may be 

 collected from any of the smaller outer islands. A little later 

 the white porpoise enters the mouths of the larger rivers in 

 schools, and is killed with the harpoon and gun from the kyaks. 

 The summer harpoon differs from the winter one, in that the 

 iron work of the latter is replaced by ivory obtained from wal- 

 rus tusks. The handle is stout, and made of wood from four 

 to six feet long ; at one end it is tipped with ivory, with a cone- 

 like socket in its upper side, into which a similar cone on the 

 lower end of the ivory shaft fits. The two are joined together 

 by a thong of seal-line passing through holes in the ivory of 

 each piece about two inches from their ends. This thong is 

 made tight, and holds the cones in place while the harpoon is in 

 use and until the head enters some animal, when the weight of 

 the shaft causes the cones to slip and the shaft hangs loose from 

 the wooden handle. The shaft is usually made from a single 

 lusk, and is from twelve to eighteen inches long, but sometimes 

 it is made by splicing two pieces, and they are joined by bands 

 of lead run through mortised holes in the two pieces. The shaft 

 in its lower end at the cone is usually over an inch in diameter, 

 and tapers slowly to the upper end, where it is about a quarter 

 of an inch thick. There is generally the natural curve of the 

 tusk in the shaft, so that it is not quite straight. An ivory head 

 fits the upper end of the shaft, and it is tipped by an arrow- 



