110 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



CHAPTER IX 



WINTER LIFE 



There is a transition period each j'^ear in the lives of the Eskimos when they 

 cease from their quest of food on land and yet are not prepared to begin the 

 winter's sealing on the ice. Its length varies from about a fortnight to a month, 

 and corresponds roughly with our month of November. The sea ice is still 

 thin, and though it is possible to cross between Victoria island and the mainland, 

 it is unwise, to camp on it in most places. This is not an idle period for the 

 Eskimos, however. During the dark days when the sun is absent no new 

 deerskins may be sewn, so the women are now fully occupied in making all 

 the clothes that will be required by their families during the next five or six 

 months. The men, in the meantime, bring in their caches of deermeat, and 

 dried or frozen fish, and the pokes of blubber that have been secreted in stone 

 cairns on the coast since spring. They repair too their sealing implements, or 

 make new ones, and scrape most of the skins that the women intend to use. 

 Leisure hours are occupied in trapping foxes, or fishing in adjoining lakes. 



(Photo by J. J. O'Neill) 

 Fig. 34. Tree river Eskimos descending to the sea at the approach of winter 



All through the summer the families that compose each separate group or 

 tribe have been scattered over various fishing and hunting grounds in the 

 interior; but now they assemble once again at some well-known meeting place 

 on or near the coast. The Akulliakattak natives gather at Lake Akulliakattak, 

 the Noahognirmiut at Chantry island or at the fishing creek four miles east of 

 Bernard harbour, the Coppermine river natives on an island off the mouth of 

 the nearer Kugaryuak river, the Pingangnaktomiut on Hepburn island, and the 

 Kilusiktomiut on one of the Barry islands in Bathurst inlet called Igloryuallik. 

 The Puivlik natives have several places where they may assemble in the autumn. 

 At the beginning of December, 1914, they had a large settlement a short distance 

 from the mouth of the Kimiryuak river. There they were joined by two 

 Noahognik families, who, through lack of food, had crossed the strait and foisted 

 themselves for the time being on their more prosperous neighbours. There 

 were then nine double houses in the settlement, but no dance-house, because the 

 season for visiting was still far off and the men were sufficiently occupied in 

 carrying out their various tasks. Accordingly, the dance they gave in honour 



