VISITORS 



Certainly the Eskimos took great interest in our 

 visitors. I remember one gentleman who was on 

 the hill taking photographs of birds, snap-shotting 

 them in their wild haunts. The Eskimos could 

 not understand this. " What is he doing ? " they 

 said. " Takka, see him, he is crawling on his hands 

 and knees among the stones ; ai, ai now he is hiding 

 behind a rock whatever is he after ? " 



One wiseacre among them, who had perhaps 

 heard of Klondike, suggested that the gentleman was 

 finding gold ! " Goldemik," they chorussed, and 

 after him they went, peering and muttering as he 

 crouched among the moss, and searching intently 

 wherever he happened to make a halt. I am not 

 surprised that they have the idea of gold, for the 

 rocks are rich in copper and iron, and several times 

 the people have brought shining lumps of pyrites to 

 me, to ask " Is it gold ? " 



I saw one visitor gazing with rueful countenance 

 upon a ruinous-looking heap of sticks on the jetty. 

 He had bought a kajak the day before, and had un- 

 wisely left it out of doors to wait for the ship, and 

 during the night the dogs had made a meal of it. 

 No doubt they found the sealskin cover tasty ; but 

 they had also made an attack on the oil-soaked 

 framework, gnawing it as if it were the bones of the 

 thing. The Eskimos are wise enough to put their 

 kajaks on poles ; I thought it was to keep them dry, 

 but I see now that it is partly to keep them out of 

 the jaws of the dogs. 



But work was the great thing that kept 

 us healthy in mind and body. While the people 

 were at home we were constantly among them ; 

 while they were away at their hunting and fishing 



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