134 ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICS OF CANADA. 
often be seen running about gnawing pieces of walrus 
hide as if they were apples. Sometimes, however, they 
have no walrus hide or meat of any kind to gnaw, for 
occasionally in the spring season the condition of the 
snow and ice is such as to render hunting impossible, 
and though they store up meat in the fall for winter 
use, 1t is often exhausted 
before spring. 
When this state of things 
occurs the condition of 
the Eskimos is deplorable 
in the extreme. They are 
forced to kill and eat 
their wretched dogs, which 
are even more nearly 
starved than themselves, 
and next they resort to 
their skin clothing and 
moccasins, which they 
soak in water until they 
become soft, though per- 
haps not altogether pala- 
table. 
HALF-BREED HUNTER WITH : 
WOODEN SNOW-GOGGLES. Next to starvation, per- 
haps the most severe 
attliction the Eskimo has to endure is that of snow 
blindness. This trouble is very prevalent in the spring 
season, and is caused by the exposure to the strong 
glare of the sun upon the glistening fields of snow and 
ice. Snow blindness is thus in reality acute inflamma- 
iton of the eyes, and the pain caused by it is excrucia- 
ting, being like what one would expect to suffer if his 
