112 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



thin ice which may be broken up at any time by a sudden storm. While the 

 ice is still forming, indeed, they sometimes shoot bearded seals (with rifles now 

 but formerly too with bows and arrows) as the animals bask on the surface of 

 the ice off the mouths of streams and rivers.^ For the Copper Eskimos too the 

 period of greatest privation is from the middle of January till about the middle 

 of March, because it is then that the coldest and stormiest weather usually 

 prevails and they have least success in their sealing. 



One of the first actions of a community after it settles down in its winter 

 sealing ground is the construction of a dance-house. This is never a separate 

 structure standing by itself, but a large dome covering the fore part of a single 

 hut, or more usually the fore-oourts or two or more huts. In this way it is kept 

 warm by the lamps that are always burning in the dwellings, and is more fitted 

 to fulfil its other function of a club-house. 



On a normal mid-winter day the Eskimo hunter never stirs till about eight 

 o'clock. His wife rises a little earlier to kindle"^ the lamp, which usually expires 

 during the night. Sometimes she lights it from her bed, but an energetic woman 

 will always rise early and occupy herself with some task or other. Occasion- 

 ally she boils a little seal-meat to warm up her husband before he goes sealing, 

 but often he is content with frozen fish or deer-meat, or cold boiled seal-meat 

 left over from the night before. The woman removes the snow-block from the 

 door, and goes outside to look at the weather, and, it may be, to bring in a fresh 

 supply of blubber for the lamp. Presently children appear, bringing food from 

 other houses, and are sent away with corresponding portions to distribute 

 among the neighbours. Any child, no matter whose it is, may be sent on such 

 errands; and if there are no children, or the wife wants to pay a visit herself, 

 she will take her own contributions of food. A man or two will now probably 

 enter the hut, and the husband, who has ea^ten his breakfast in bed, turns out 



Fig. 35. Eskimo hunters starting out for the seaUng-grounds, Dolphin and Union strait 



and dresses. "Are they starting out for the seahng-ground yet ?" he asks, 

 and if the answer is "Yes'^, he hurries forth, harnesses his dogs, and takes his 

 seahDg apparatus from the rampart that encompasses the house. With the 

 breaking fight all the men set out in a body for the sealing-ground, which may 

 be from three to five miles away. As soon as they reach it they scatter 

 and the dogs sniff about and smell out the holes where the seals come up to the 

 surface of the water to breathe. The hunter watches them, searching about 



'Early in October, 1915, when we were camped not far from the mouth of the Okauyarvik creek, 

 Ikpakhuak shot one rough and three bearded seals on the surface of the ice. He had to stalk them on 

 his hands and knees, and in so doing froze both his wrists so that they were black for days afterwards; 

 but he merely laughed over his misfortune and considered it rather a joke. In the spring of the same 

 year an Eskimo hunter in Coronation gulf stalked a large bearded seal on the ice and launched an arrow 

 at it that missed by a hand's breadth only. 



