130 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



The Eskimos avoided the glare ice as much as possible, for their sleds would 

 slide in all directions on it, then stick on the merest patch of snow, from 

 which it was difficult to start them again as both the dogs and the Eskimos 

 would be standing on smooth ice. We stopped to camp beside a small lake. 

 The men, as soon as they had set up their tents, went fishing, leaving the 

 women to unload the sleds and prepare the evening meal. 



May 19: Hunting and fishing occupied the natives all day. For the first time 

 this spring Higilak was able to cook a pot of deer-meat over an okauyak fire. 

 Hitherto the woman had used their stone lamps and blubber, as in winter; 

 but as their tables and lamp-supports had been left on the coast, they used 

 to set up their lamps on snow-blocks, and rest a stone on each corner to 

 support the cooking-pot. We had an exciting chase after a weasel, which 

 finally disappeared down a hole in some rocks. 



May 20: Pissuak and his family, who had left us about a fortnight before, 

 rejoined us at this place. Pissuak owned a rifie, which he shared with 

 Ivyarotailak just as Ikpakhuak shared his with Avranna. Everyone went 

 hunting and fishing as usual. Ikpakhuak left in the early morning, ■ and 

 did not return until long after midnight. The weather was now so warm 

 that the women did most of their work out of doors. 



May 21 : A repetition of the preceding day. 



Fig. 41. The return from a caribou hunt, packing the game, Colville hills 



May 22: The whole settlement moved to Lake Numikhoin, where Ikpakhuak 

 and others had met some Prince Albert sound families the previous summer. 

 The natives proposed to cache their sleds here, as they had done the year 

 before. Accordingly they dragged them up on to bare ground where the 

 mud runners, exposed to the sun, soon began to crack and break off. As 

 soon as the tents were erected Ikpakhuak and others went off to bring in 

 some caribou he had shot two days before. As the hills in many places 

 were bare of snow they took a polar bear skin instead of a sled; most of the 

 meat was wrapped inside the skin, which the dogs dragged home to camp, 

 while the Eskimos packed the remainder on their backs. No caribou were 

 sighted, but Ikpakhuak shot two ptarmigan. 



