396 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



with two reindeer tongues. Last evening I received another 

 bountiful present from an Innuit of ripe poung-nung. They 

 taste very much like wild cherries. But what carries me near- 

 est home is the blueberry, it is so like in looks and taste to what 

 we have. Ninguarping and Jack brought me in this afternoon 

 a present of two fine salmon, each measuring twenty inches in 

 length. The Innuits call large salmon Ek-er-loo ; small salmon, 

 Ek-er-loo-ung. Salmon are caught by the Innuits with a hook 

 affixed upon a stick, which answers for a handle. They are also 

 caught by spearing them with a peculiar instrument which the 

 Innuits manufacture for themselves.* 



"On the return of the party, the seal which Kooperneung shot 

 coming in was made the subject of a feast. He (Kooperneung) 

 went around and invited all the men Innuits here, who soon came, 

 each with seal-knife in hand. They squatted around the seal, and 

 opened him up. A huge piece of toodnoo (tuktoo tallow) in one 

 hand, and seal liver in the other, I did justice to the same and to 

 myself. The Innuits and myself through, the ladies took our 

 places. They are now feasting on the abundance left. Seal is 

 the standing dish of provision among the Innuits. They never 

 tire of it ; while for tuktoo, Ninoo, ducks, salmon, etc., they soon 

 find all relish gone. 



" Too-loo-ka-ah shot his deer with Koojesse's gun. He usu- * 

 ally uses only bow and arrows, the same being in universal use 

 among the Innuits on the north side of Hudson's Strait. This 

 evening I got Toolookaah to try his skill in using these instru- 

 ments — bow and arrow — in making a mark of my felt hat one 

 hundred feet off. The arrow shot from his bow with almost the 

 speed of a rifle-ball. His aim was a trifle under. He missed 

 1 felt,' and lost his arrow, which is no small matter. Its force 

 buried it in the ground, covered by the luxuriant grass, and all 

 our long search proved unsuccessful. The arrow is made with 

 great pains, pointed with iron, spear-shaped. 



* There is a third method of catching salmon much practised : A kind of trap, 

 called tin-ne-je-ving (ebb-tide fish-trap), is made by inclosing a small space with a 

 low wall, which is covered at high tide and dry at low water. The salmon go into 

 the pen over the wall, but are left by the receding tide till it is too late to return the 

 same way, and they thus become an easy prey. 



