LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS 



is it harpooned than the line with lightning speed is fixed in the 

 ice ; the walrus is now tethered, and being therefore forced to 

 return to the same breathing-hole every time it draws a breath, 

 it is killed with lances. 



In the autumn the walrus is fat and meaty, and the yield of 

 the catch therefore goes much farther than that of the little 

 seals. And this has its importance in a household where prac- 

 tically every means of finding a livelihood must be abandoned 

 for the better part of the winter, and where must be fed not 

 only the people, but also the sledge-dogs, of which a single man 

 may possess over a score. 



The type of hunting which the Eskimo values above all 

 others, however, is the bear-hunt. I put once the following 

 question to an elderly man : 



" Tell me what you consider the greatest happiness of your 

 life." 



And he replied : 



" To run across fresh bear-tracks and be ahead of all other 

 sledges." 



Scarcely has the sun and the light returned when all men, 

 who possess meat enough to leave their wives and children alone 

 at home, go out bear-hunting, often for months, defying cold 

 and all sorts of weather, welcoming snowdrifts as their camps. 

 The southern borders of these bear-hunts stretch right down to 

 Cape Holm, while northward Humboldt's Glacier is often 

 passed. Finally, many of them cross over Smith Sound from 

 Anoritoq to Pirn Island, and follow the coast of Ellesmere 

 Land almost as far down as Jones Sound. One has seen on 

 these bear-hunts old men with white hair, men who during their 

 life of hunting good and bad have experienced everything nature 

 could offer them, hunters who have long ago forgotten the tally 

 of their deeds ; and young men, half -grown lads — all of them 

 go crazy with the hunting-fever as soon as there is a chance of 

 challenging the white king of the Polar waste. And for one 

 single harpoon duel all the resultless and evil toil which pre- 

 ceded this supreme moment is forgotten. 



The track of a bear, and far in the distance a small yellow 



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