44 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



ice (as we call it) is bitterly salt. But during the first 

 winter it gradually freshens and by the time it starts float- 

 ing around in the form of isolated cakes the following 

 summer, it is so fresh that the palate can detect no 

 salt. 



But Roxy told me the main reason for his rejoicing 

 was that the waves were running pretty high and his little 

 girl was seasick, and that when we got in among the ice 

 we would have no more trouble with the waves. This 

 turned out to be so. The ice floes were scattered. Few 

 of them were bigger than a city block in area and there 

 were between them half-mile open patches where we 

 sailed through smooth water though the wind was blowing 

 stiffly. 



This was my first introduction to the sea ice. Through 

 many years I gradually became more and more fond of it, 

 until I now regard it as the Eskimos do. When I come 

 back to it after an absence, I feel like a forest dweller 

 who comes in sight of trees after a long journey over the 

 prairie. 



Another new thing to me in the Arctic was the whaling 

 industry, but it took me a long time to get that straight 

 in my head. From many long narratives I eventually be- 

 came able to condense the story into a brief statement. 

 The first whaling ship had come to Herschel Island in 

 1889. At that time some of the Eskimos in this district 

 had never <vcn a white man, although most of them had 

 been to Fort Macpherson once or oftener to trade. The 

 next year (1890) there was a large Heel of whaling ships 

 and they I u hi In considerable numbersof Alaska Eski- 

 mos who had been on and around ships for many years. 

 Learning from people of their own kind was much easier 

 for the Mackenzie Eskimos than it would have been to 



