128 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



was very simple and depended on a little open patch 

 where the water flows out of the lake into the river that 

 takes it to the sea. Here the rapid current prevents the 

 formation of ice in even the coldest weather, and nets can 

 be set exactly as in summer. In other places the nets 

 had to be set through the ice. 



In getting ready to fish through ice you fasten 

 your floats to one edge of the net and your sinkers to 

 the other, so that one edge of the net shall be held at 

 the surface of the water and the other down vertically. 

 Then you cut two holes in the ice about forty feet apart 

 (for that is a common length for Eskimo nets) and each 

 a foot or eighteen inches in diameter. Between these two 

 holes you cut a series of smaller holes just big enough to 

 stick your arm into the water, and perhaps six or eight 

 feet apart. Next you take a stick of dry, buoyant wood 

 that is eight or ten feet long. You shove it down through 

 one of the end holes until it is all in the water, when it 

 floats up and rises against the ice. You have a string 

 tied to the stick and this sti ing you fasten to one end of 

 the net. Then you lay the stick so that, while one end 

 is still visible at your hole, the other end is visible below 

 the next hole six or eight feet away. You now go to the 

 second hole, put your hand into the water and slide the 

 stick along under the ice until you can see it through the 

 third hole. The stick, of course, pulls the string in after 

 it and by the time you have worked the stick along to 

 the furthest hole your ret is set. You now take a rope 

 that is about ten feet longer than the net and tie each end 

 of th( mp< to one end of the net so as to make an "end- 

 less chain," the net beinr; under the water and the rope 

 on top of the ice. 



During the night the holes all freeze over. You allow 



