CHAPTER XIX 



THE SPRING FLITTING SEAL-HUNTING AMONG THE FLOES 

 TENT LIFE THE HUNTER'S RETURN 



SOON after the home-coming of the last of the 

 reindeer-hunters a new excitement began. 

 Spring was in the air, though the mice and the little 

 snow-buntings were the only living sign of it ; the ice 

 was beginning to crack, and the Eskimos were eager 

 to get their spring flitting over while travelling was 

 safe and easy. Labrador was beginning to wear its 

 spring dress, which is another way of saying that the 

 snow was melting and making the whole place slushy 

 in the daytime, and the black rock was peeping 

 through upon the hillsides. All this came about in 

 ! the month of May, when the air was warm by day 

 i and the nights were short and chilly; and when, as 

 the mornings passed, I discovered that one family 

 after another had moved off in the small hours, I 

 I made up my mind that I would have a picture of 

 i the flitting. When I walked along the village in the 

 ; evening there was a bustle of packing outside many 

 of the houses, but at four in the morning, when I 

 came out with my camera, there was nothing but a 

 glimpse of the tail of a sledge as it careered round the 

 bend out of the bay. I gathered that the people had 

 been up most of the night, for when an Eskimo sets 

 his mind on doing a thing there is very little rest for 

 him until he has done it. During the day I came 

 upon Jakobus polishing his sledge runners, a sure 



