CHAPTER IV 



HUNTS AND EXPLORATIONS 



Ikwaand his Family — Present of a Mirror — August Walrus Hunt — Preparations 

 for Sending out the Depot Party — Departure for Head of McCormick Bay — 

 First Herd of Reindeer — Exciting Experiences in Tooktoo Valley — Packing 

 the Things up the Bluffs — The Inland Ice Party Off — Return to Redcliffe — 

 A Foretaste of Winter. 



These Eskimos were the queerest, dirtiest-looking indi- 

 viduals I had ever seen. Clad entirely in furs, they reminded 

 me more of monkeys than of human beings. Ikwa, the man, 

 was about five feet two or three inches in height, round as a 

 dumpling, with a large, smooth, fat face, in which two little 

 black eyes, a flat nose, and a large expansive mouth were 

 almost lost. His coarse black hair was allowed to straggle in 

 tangles over his face, ears, and neck, to his shoulders, without 

 any attempt at arrangement or order. His body was covered 

 with a garment made of birdskins, called by the natives 

 "ahtee," the feathers worn next the body, and outside of this 

 a garment made of sealskin with the fur on the outside, called 

 " netcheh." These garments, patterned exactly alike, were 

 made to fit to the figure, cut short at the hips, and coming to 

 a point back and front ; a close-fitting hood was sewed to the 

 neck of each garment, and invariably pulled over his head 



