TENTS 



that takes up so much room. Another reason that 

 has struck me in favour of the calico tent is that 

 calico is not particularly tempting to the appetite of 

 the dogs. I can well imagine that a tent of dried 

 reindeer skins might prove quite a toothsome meal 

 for a pack of famished sledge dogs; but I have 

 never heard of them devouring a calico tent whole- 

 sale, though they are not averse to an occasional 

 chew at the oil-sodden margins. 



And so the Eskimos spend their summer, dwell- 

 ing in tents, fishing and drying their catch upon the 

 rocks, until by the end of September the main rush 

 of the codfish is over, and the people make their way 

 home again to the Mission villages, bringing their 

 fish bundled ready for the Harmony to take it to 

 market. 



In the old days, I suppose, before there was ai 

 market for their fish, the people did as I found them 

 doing at Killinek they hunted the seals and the 

 white bears. But the seals are gone northward ; 

 they have learnt better than to stay about the villages 

 of the Eskimos, and nowadays do no more than pass 

 them by in the autumn and the spring. As for the 

 white bears, a stray one sometimes comes along the 

 coast with the ice, and becomes the centre of a 

 furious hunt and the cause of a great deal of chat- 

 tering about " nennok " (white bear) over the pipes 

 in the evening; but the most of the nennoks have 

 retreated to the Button Islands and other desolate 

 spots where there is no smell of man to disturb 

 them. 



A beady-eyed little Eskimo came into my room 

 one evening, hugging a bulky package which he 



dumped upon the floor. 



256 





