154 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



as quickly as possible so that the fish has no time to wriggle itself free. The 

 Eskimo uses the back of his hands, or the wrists, in puUing up the line, hand 

 over hand, instead of grasping it each time in the fingers; it is really a much 

 quicker method. If the hne is very long, however, it may become tangled in 

 its own folds, or the fish may drop off before it reaches the surface; the native 

 therefore runs back with his rod from the hole, and gradually slows down to a 

 walk as the fish approaches the under-surface of the ice. 



J^r- 



(Photo by G. H. Wilkins) 



Fig. 50. Jigging for fish through an ice-crack ia a lake near Bernard harbour 



A hole is usually exhausted in about an hour, for the fish become cautious 

 and keep away from the hook. The fisherman has therefore to dig four or five 

 holes, as a rule, in the course of the day. A small lake yields almost nothing 

 on the second day. Lake trout must find plenty of food during the winter, 

 for many of them are very fat in the spring even before the ice round the edges 

 of the lakes has begun to melt. They seem to stay near the bottom at this 

 period. Lake salmon lie more dormant, and are smaller than those that have 

 access to the sea. We caught none at all in the Colville hills until water had 

 formed round the edges of the lakes. Both trout and salmon appear to love the 

 sunlit pools into which the streams from the hills pour their waters. In one 

 such pool a woman caught twenty-nine trout and two salmon in the space of 

 four hours, while three of us who had dug holes not a hundred yards away 

 could hardly raise a bite. The next day, however, only four fish were caught 

 in the same pool. 



When a fish bites, but is not hooked, the native cries keuk keuk, "Come 

 again" or keuk allaralumik kannakoktumik, "Come again, another one; there 

 are plenty down there." After the fish is drawn up, it is killed with a sharp 

 rap on the back of the head from the fishing-rod, and laid with its mouth towards 

 the hole. The natives could give me no reason for this, but merely said that 

 "it had always been their custom" {pitkuherigaptigut uvagut) to point the fish 

 towards its hole; there seemed to be an idea, however, that other fish would 



