Summer Life 129 



arrows, but missed. The sun was now so warm that skins had to be 

 hung over the sides of the sleds to keep the runners from melting. In the 

 evening the other Eskimos raised their tents on snow-blocks; but Ikpakhuak 

 found a place where the snow was very shallow, so he cleaned it away and 

 pitched his tent on bare ground. Milukkattak cooked some deer-meat 

 outdoors over a small wood fire, sheltered from the breeze by some snow- 

 blocks that Avranna set up for her. 

 May 14: Caribou were sighted early in the morning while we were loading 

 the sleds, and Ikpakhuak and I went in pursuit of them, leaving the others 

 to break camp and trek to Lake Ekallugak, in the Colville hills. We spent 

 the whole day in an unsuccessful hunt, then about 8:30 p.m. began to look 

 for the camp. About a mile from the lake we came upon three snow-blocks 

 arranged in line about twenty yards apart; our people had set them up 

 to guide us to their new camp. They had already begun to fish through 

 the ice, and had caught enough trout for supper. 



Fig. 40. Ikpakhuak jigging for fish in Lake Ekallugak, Colville hills 



May 15: The men divided into three parties and went hunting, Milukkattak 

 accompanying her husband Avranna. Two caribou were shot. The 

 skins were carried back to camp, but the carcasses were left to be brought 

 in later on a sled. The women and children fished all day in the lake, and 

 caught about two dozen trout. 



May 16: Most of the men were away hunting, the others fished with the 

 women and children in two or three different lakes. Higilak and Kanneyuk 

 went out with a sled and brought in the two deer that were shot the day 

 before. 



May 17: The children shot two ptarmigan with their bows and arrows; the 

 adults hunted and fished as usual. 



May 18: We migrated north, about six miles as the crow flies, though, as we 

 had to wind in and out following the line of the lakes, we actually travelled 

 about ten. Many ptarmigan were seen on the way, and the Eskimos 

 frequently launched their arrows at them, but invariably missed. In many 

 places the snow was soft and deep, and one of the sleds capsized three times. 



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