Hunting and Fishing 155 



approach the hole to keep it company After one has been caught, the fisherman 

 will often say, as he lowers his line again, taki, taki, taki aiperlugo, ' Come, come, 

 come, give me another;" but expressions of this kind have no magical significance. 

 Sometimes an exceptionally large trout is caught on the hook, too big to be 

 drawn up through the hole. The fisherman then holds it firmly against the 

 under surface of the ice to keep it from dropping off, while a comrade runs up, 

 lowers his own line, and jigs his hook also into the fish. The two men then 

 steer it carefully through the narrow opening, or one holds the fish while the 

 other enlarges the hole with the chisel. 



A crack in the ice materially lessens the labour of digging a hole. In the 

 later days of spring the surface of the lake becomes perforated with holes, and 

 an ice-chisel is no longer needed. As the cracks widen and pools of water form 

 round the edges the men make more and more use of their spears. They jig their 

 hooks a foot or two below the surface, and impale the fish on their tridents as they 

 approach the bait. I have already described in the previous chapter how they 

 wade about in the water at this season and spear the fish at the corners of the 

 lakes. In summer, when the lakes are free from ice, they sometimes employ 

 another curious method, should any fish be seen close in to shore. The Eskimo 

 will cast his line as far out as it will reach, and slowly draw it in again (ekkasaktok 

 is the name given to the process) ; sometimes, but not often, the fish will bite 

 as the line is being drawn in. 



Now and again a simple form of gorge is employed in the lakes. One 

 woman slit a piece of bone about six inches long from the tibia of a caribou. 

 She whittled one end to a sharp point and drilled a hole in the other to attach 

 her line. This gorge she concealed inside the body of a small trout, and set it 

 over night in a lake. In the morning she drew in a fine trout weighing about 

 ten pounds — the lake trout apparently devours the young of its own species. 

 Another womaii removed the spine from a small salmon trout and inserted in 

 its place a number of short sharp-pointed bones. She then tied the fish together 

 again, fastened a line to its tail, and set it overnight through a hole in the ice of 

 a lake. I was away hunting the next day, and omitted to enquire whether 

 she caught anything or not. 



Trolling proper can be done only from a kayak. The fisherman holds his 

 rod in his mouth with the line trailing behind him in the water. He paddles 

 round and round until a fish is hooked, then makes for the shore as fast as he can, 

 since he dare not draw in his line at once for fear his kayak will capsize. As 

 soon as the boat touches the beach he jumps out, hauls in the fish and knocks 

 it on the head with his fishing-rod. This method, as far as I know, is seldom 

 practised outside of the region around Bathyrst inlet, where kayaks are much 

 in vogue for summer caribou hunting. 



The salmon trout that come up from the sea. are sometimes speared in the 

 autumn as they pursue each other round the boulders on the margins of the 

 lakes. This is their mating season, and their colour changes to a bright red. 

 The natives are well aware of both these facts, and further that the salmon at 

 this time will never bite at the hook. The few that Ikpakhuak caught in the 

 fall of 1915 were all speared with the double gaff. Large numbers are speared 

 in the spring as they migrate up the streams and rivers. The use of a rake for 

 this purpose has already been described. The Eskimos construct stone dams, 

 isikat, across some shallow reach, either near the mouth of the creek or at its 

 exit from the lake.' Usually there are four dams at intervals of twenty-five 

 yards or so from each other. The lower three have narrow gaps through which 

 thejfish can pass, but the upper one is complete and blocks their passage alto- 

 gether. As soon as the shoal has all entered through the third dam the natives 

 rush in with their spears and slaughter them, throwing them out on to the 

 bank or stringing them on long seal-skin lines. Sometimes they take the pre- 



iCf. Boas, Bulletin, A.M.N.H., Vol. XV, p. 475. 



