Hunting and Fishing 153 



which are the principal fish the natives catch, seem rather to nibble round the 

 bait than actually to swallow it. At any rate, on the two or three occasions 

 that I have set lines over-night most of the bait was nibbled away, but no fish 

 was caught on a hook. Trout and salmon must be Jagged in the Up as they 

 come to nibble, and hauled up rapidly before they have time to escape. The 

 barb is thus a disadvantage, for often it merely tears the hp and lets the fish 

 drop off; moreover it is more difficult to disengage a barbed hook, especially in 

 cold weather. 



Having no eye, the hook is riveted to an oval piece of bone or horn, tivyak 

 or karyoksak, which acts also as a sinker. The fine, ukkwak, is attached through 

 a hole, or two holes, drilled at the upper end of this sinker. Most lines are made 

 of plaited sinew taken from the leg-bone of the caribou, but sometimes, 

 especially in Dolphin and Union strait, one comes upon a fine made wholly or 

 partly of baleen; I was told that these baleen lines are used chiefly for tom-cod, 

 but did Aot discover the reason. The Eskimo's fishing-rod, aulezzuk, is usually 

 a short piece of wood with a deep notch at one end, forming as it were two 

 thumbs, kuvlokuk; the other end is spliced to a curved horn handle which also 

 has a deep notch close to the end, the two notches being used to wind up the fine. 

 The rods vary in length frOm eighteen inches to two feet or more. Often one 

 or two small bone pins, naigliglarvik, are inserted along the stick to enable the 

 fine to be shortened a little while fishing. For bait, mikkigak, the native generally 

 uses a strip of skin and flesh irom the belly of the fish, though sometimes he 

 uses the oesophagus. Some fishermen take pains to conceal the hook, but 

 others are quite careless in that respect; it really appears to make very fittle 

 difference, as the fish will nibble in either case, and often indeed the natives 

 use no bait at all. The fisherman's outfit further comprises a copper or iron 

 chisel, turk, mounted on a long stout wooden pole,' a small wooden scoop, ilaun, 

 with a bone "free-board" to protect the edges,^ a seal-skin water-bucket, 

 kattak, and a seal-skin bag or haversack to hold the fish, ungellak. In the later 

 days of spring, and also in the fall, the man usually carries also a trident, 

 nuyakpak, or a double-gaff, kakivak. 



The lakes freeze in winter to a depth of from five to six feet. As many of 

 them are shallow and freeze right to the bottom, while others, though deep in 

 most places, have shallow bays, the fisherman needs some guide to show him 

 where to dig his holes. So wherever an Eskimo has found successful fishing he 

 sets up two stones about a dozen yards apart on a ridge overlooking the spot, 

 lining them up so that they point exactly to his fishing-ground. Every lake of 

 any considerable size has landmarks of this kind, which are given the same 

 name, nakkatain, as the stones set up by the hunter to mark the direction of a 

 cache. A native who is unfamiliar with the region always searches out these 

 fishing-guides, follows their direction out on the ice for a hundred yards or so 

 and digs his hole. 



It takes a man nearly half an hour to make a hole of from 12" to 18" 

 diameter at the top and from 4" to 6" diameter at the bottom. The chips of 

 ice are baled out with the scoop, which, in the early days of spring, must be 

 lashed to a long pole in order to reach to the bottom of the hole; later in the 

 season the hole automatically fills with water from the melting surface of the 

 lake, or the fisherman can pour water into it, so that the fragments of ice will 

 float to the surface. The line is lowered until it touches the bottom of the lake, 

 then raised two or three inches and kept constantly jigging. If the lake is very 

 deep the line, unless it is exceptionally long, is lowered to its full extent, then, 

 the moment a bite is felt, it is given a jerk, and, if the hook catches, pulled up 



'The natives prefer copper as a rule, because in shallow lakes or streams the chisel often strikes a stone on 

 the bottom. An iron blade will chip and is difficult to sharpen again, whereas a blade of copper merely 

 burrs. For the same reason copper knives are still used occasionally for building snow huts on land. 



^Sometimes the broad base of an antler is used in place of a scoop. 



