AS FAR AS HARRINGTON 



ries as he can afford, retires to his winter house 

 at the head of some protected bay, and settles 

 down to a long winter season of comparative 

 leisure. He traps, — and there is always the 

 lure of a black fox and riches, — he cuts wood, 

 and visits his neighbors. Winter traveling 

 over the ice on komatiks, or dog-sledges, with 

 a good team of seven or eight dogs rapidly 

 shortens a forty-mile space between him and 

 a neighbor. Latchstrings are always hanging 

 out, and the unexpected arrival of a whole 

 family to spend several days or a week is 

 taken as a matter of course, and every hos- 

 pitality possible is dispensed. Sometimes the 

 appearance of the stove and larder shows in 

 the morning that a traveler in a hurry had 

 availed himself of the customary, hospitality 

 of the country during the night, and had gone 

 his way without a word. I asked a number of 

 men along the coast how they liked the win- 

 ter, and their eyes sparkled as they spoke of 

 its pleasures. Spring and fall they shoot mi- 

 grating ducks and net and shoot seals, and 

 before the cod strike in, some of them net 

 salmon, for which privilege they pay the Gov- 

 ernment a tax of three cents a fathom of net. 

 133 



