Winter Life 119 



his hand, and while he rubbed it along the runner she filled her mouth again 

 for the next apphcation. Fully half an hour passed before their sled was ready- 

 to proceed again.^ 



As a rule Eskimos can travel but one or two days at a time, when they 

 must stop and hunt seals, which are too heavy for more than one or two to be 

 carried on the sled with the rest of the property. Nor do the natives travel 

 very far in one day unless their sleds are light, for not only must they drag them 

 themselves, but before it grows dark they must find a suitable camping-site 

 and begin the construction of their snow huts. On the other hand, they have 

 no cumbersome tent to carry, with its poles and ropes, at least not in winter. 

 When spring does finally come and a tent must be carried, the weather is mild 

 and the dayhght long, so that there is no need for haste; at this period therefore 

 a native with a light sled will often travel as many as thirty miles in a day. 

 For convenience of transport the covering of the tent is usually rolled up in 

 two bundles, which are joined together again before the poles are set up. 



Abandoned camps are often reoccupied a few weeks later, generally by the 

 same inhabitants returning from a visit to neighbouring tribes; a stranger, 

 though he occupies the same site, will usually build a new hut for himself. 

 Often, although the settlement is abandoned, there are clear signs that the 

 inhabitants intend to return before very long. The ice windows are left in 

 place, the door-ways are blocked with snow, and tent poles and other gear 

 still remain planted in the walls. Looking through the windows two or three 

 large bags may be seen inside filled with meat and blubber. One native made 

 a cache of three sealskin bags, two containing blubber and one seal meat, in a 

 square hole in an ice keg near the hut he was abandoning. He covered the 

 bags with three sealskins, and closed the hole with blocks of ice. Three weeks 

 later he came back and recovered his property. 



Spring with its mild, sunny weather brings longer and pleasanter hours for 

 hunting. Seals, though not more plentiful perhaps, are more easily discovered, 

 and the camp is filled with meat and blubber. To the women this season 

 means more work. The winter, provided food and fuel were not wanting, 

 was almost a holiday time, but now each family requires spring boots that will 

 not spoil in the melting snow. Some of the sealskins must be scraped and 

 dried, partly for footgear, partly to make up into bags for clothing, meat and 

 blubber. Such skins are scattered all about the camp, some pegged to snow 

 blocks, others to the walls of the houses, others again stretched over the sleds. 

 There is a general spring cleaning. The clothes that are ranged in bags on the 

 ramparts of the houses must all be unpacked, shaken out and aired in the sun. 

 A sharp eye is kept on the weather for the least sign of drift, and after every 

 gale or snowfall the bags are emptied again, the snow brushed out before it 

 melts, and the clothes carefully repacked. The tent now supplants the snow 

 hut, and in place of closing up chinks in the walls and scraping the window, 

 the wife now beats off the encrusting frost and snow. Surplus blubber is no 

 longer thrown away, but diligently packed in large sealskin pokes to be sorted 

 away for the autumn. At the same time many of their, fine winter clothes 

 are packed away, since it will be impossible in summer to carry them wherever 

 they go. Migrations take place more frequently, and the men hunt nearer 

 home, staying away eight or nine hours a day instead of four or five as in winter. 



Now that rifles are growing more common many of the Eskimos abandon 

 the ordinary method of sealing much earlier than in former years. Instead they 

 wander along the coast to intercept the caribou as they migrate north, or to 

 shoot the bearded seals that in certain well-known places, especially off the 



'A quick way of re-icing the runners in the fall when travelling down a river bed is to dig a hole down 

 to the water with the ice-chisel (a matter of perhaps five minutes when the river is frozen to a depth of 

 only about two feet), pour some water over the surface of the ice, and run the sled through it before it 

 freezes. The usual method, however, produces a more even surface. 



