GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA 



Unfortunately this hunting of walrus often fails, and this 

 district is therefore not reckoned as a good food-provider. 



Orqordlit, or the lee-side inhabitants, encompass the whole 

 district around the great Inglefield Gulf. Many camps are to 

 be found here, where the hunting conditions everywhere are so 

 brilliant that meat is always to be had in superfluity. In the 

 mouth of the fjord there is an excellent run of walrus all through 

 the summer, on the new ice in the autumn, and during the light 

 time in March. When frozen sea, after being opened by a 

 storm, freezes again, hunting like that described above takes 

 place here. 



Besides walrus, there is also a large and persistent shoaling 

 of narwhal and white-whale, which are hunted from kayaks. 

 These large, meaty animals provide substantial winter depots 

 for the lee-side inhabitants. 



The rich blubber from narwhal and white-whale yields, as 

 is well known, far more light and warmth than that from seal 

 and walrus, and these districts are justified in boasting of the 

 fact that they possess the largest and warmest houses. Their 

 kennels are abundantly stocked, and the dogs are fat with shiny 

 coats. Foxes, however, are scarce in some districts, and the 

 Sea-king is only to be found near Kiatak, Igdluluarssuit, and 

 Neqe. But the climate during the autumn is far drier here than 

 farther southward, and one can practically always reckon on a 

 long ice-hunting period which goes to swell the meat stores still 

 further. 



The only thing really scarce is bear-skin, which is rightly 

 considered indispensable. Without warm bear-skin trousers it 

 would be impossible to undertake long journeys in winter-time, 

 and where there is no bear-hunting there will be no proper 

 bunk-rugs to lie on either. The hunters on the windward side 

 therefore characterize the lee-side inhabitants, with some 

 malice, as kitchen-hunters who, in spite of their wealth of meat 

 and their fat dogs, have to trade for bear-skin with the real 

 hunters. 



Avangnardlit, or those who live next to the north wind, 

 includes the camps of Etah and Anoritoq. The conditions at 

 24 



