134 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



cheerful as ever when they returned, though somewhat tired from lack of 

 sleep. Higilak was greatly perturbed by their absence. She knew they 

 would return as soon as the fog lifted, but she was afraid that her little 

 daughter Kanneyuk would be very cold and miserable; consequently, she 

 held a stance to try and dispel the fog. 



July 3 : Two causes brought about a further division in our little party. The 

 first was the probability of finding caribou farther east, the second the 

 apparent abundance of fish in a certain lake to the north. Accordingly 

 Ikpakhuak and his family went east, while Avranna and his wife, with 

 Kanneyuk, went north. Higilak and Haugak were left to transfer all our 

 things to Lake KuUalluk, some foUr miles away, while Ikpakhuak and I 

 went hunting. We secured two does and two fawns, an eider duck, a 

 ptarmigan and two lake trout before reaching camp again at one o'clock 

 in the morning. A light south breeze was blowing and the weather was 

 warm and clear, so Higilak left our tent behind at the old camp. During 

 the next three days therefore we slept in the open. 



July 4 : Ikpakhuak and I left about noon to hunt, while Higilak and Haugak 

 fished near camp. Early in the afternoon we met Tutsik. He and his family 

 had experienced very little success in their fishing, so we sent him, to our 

 camp to have a feast of deer-meat. He arranged to join us the following 

 day with his wife and son, as Higilak had caught a large number of fish 

 in the lake beside our camp. Our hunting was again successful; we secured 

 two fine bulls. The skins, heads, and legs, with one shoulder blade, we 

 carried back to camp, a distance of about six miles, leaving the remainder 

 for Higilak to bring in later. 



July 5: Tutsik and his family joined us about midnight, and, according to 

 custom, produced a little food for us to eat as soon as they arrived, they 

 themselves eating later. The fishing this day was very successful, 38 

 trout and 2 salmon. 



July 6 : Higilak went to bring in the remainder of the caribou we shot on the 

 4th, but could not find it. In the meantime Ikpakhuak and I packed some 

 meat over to our last camp to deposit in a cache. There we found Avranna 

 and his family, who returned with us to our camp. We brought back our 

 tent with us, rather fortunately, for rain came on in the evening. Avranna 

 and Tutsik made rude shelters of caribou skins for themselves and their 

 families, using their walking-sticks and the handles of ice-chisels and fish- 

 spears for tent poles. During the day Tutsik caught a trout by jigging a 

 line through a crack in the ice and spearing it when it came to nibble at 

 the hook. 



July 7 — 12: Higilak and Kanneyuk, with two dogs, found and brought in the 

 caribou we had shot on the 4th. Ikpakhuak, Avranna and Milukkattak 

 went hunting, carrying a cooking-pot but no tent. They were absent till 

 the 12th, and secured five deer, besides a considerable number of fish. 

 The rest of us fished near camp. On the 8th two loons settled in a lane of 

 water on a lake; Kanneyuk and Kimaktun raced up and down on the ice 

 along the water's edge, frightening them under the water as soon as their 

 heads emerged so that they had no time to take breath and fly away. Tutsik 

 meantime was vainly shooting at them, and when his arrows were exhausted, 

 he bestrode a raft of floating ice, poled along with his fish-spear and re- 

 covered them one after another; finally we shot the birds with the .22 

 automatic rifle. On the 10th Tutsik and his family departed for their old 

 camp, where they had left their tent and some drying fish. 



July 13: Avranna and his family gathered up their fish and meat at Sagsagiak 

 and moved to our old camp at KauVaktok. Ikpakhuak at the same time 

 conveyed his things to Lake Nanitak, about three miles north of Kauwaktok, 

 where Higilak, Haugak and I joined him soon afterwards with the camping 

 equipment. Tutsik, we found, had moved here also. 



