CHAPTER XX 



COD-FISHING TENTS A POLAR BEAR MOSQUITOES BUILDING 



^ I A HE spring seal hunt brings the Eskimo hunting 

 JL year to a close ; with no furs to trap, no seals 

 spear, no reindeer to chase, the Labrador summer 

 rould find the hunter a disconsolate being were it 

 iot for the cod -fishing. 



This is the great thing that makes the months of 

 .ugust and September the busiest in the whole year, 

 lay in and day out the boats are on the water, with 

 icn and boys sitting in them fishing from morning 

 till night aye, and all night long if fish are plentiful. 

 It is a big test of Eskimo patience, to jerk the bright 

 leaden lure, with its two barbed hooks, up and down 

 within a few feet of the bottom of the sea ; jerk, jerk, 

 jerk, hour after hour, when fish are rather scarce and 

 only the plodder can hope to succeed; but there 

 come times when the fish are so plentiful that they 

 are on the hook before it is well sunk, and there 

 is a spice of excitement in hauling up as fast as your 

 hands can pull, and dropping the hook again for 

 more and more and more. But in spite of the 

 excitement, "jigging," as it is called among the 

 fishermen, is horribly cold work on dull, bleak days, 

 and I was not surprised to find the Eskimos wearing 

 gloves of seal leather on their plump hands to prevent 

 the line from chafing them. In ordinary times the 

 men and boys do the fishing, and leave the women 



and girls to attend to the splitting and salting, but 



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