61 
and the Eskimo himself often discovered them by probing every 
suspicious outline on the surface of the snow. Over such a breath- 
ing-hole he waited, sometimes for hours, until the seal either rose 
and was harpooned, or the long winter darkness drove the hunter 
home to his snow hut. When the winter finally ended, and the seal 
came out of its hole to bask in the warm spring sun, he adopted still 
another method. Harpoon in hand, he crawled cautiously toward 
it. imitating its own motions with his dai’k, fur-clad form. If it 
gazed at him in suspicion lie stopped and lay motionless, or slowly 
moved his head from side to side and gently scratched the ice with 
a special pair of claws. Thus, little by little, he approached his 
quarry and, with a sudden cast of his harpoon, transfixed the startled 
animal befoi'e it had time to dive into its hole. 
All these methods of hunting the sea mammals were merely 
adaptations of still more ancient methods of hunting animals on 
land, and of capturing fish in the sea, lakes, and rivers;^ for the 
aborigines were as skilful in fishing as in hunting, and employed as 
great a variety of methods. Only the Indians of the prairies, where 
lakes were absent and the muddy rivers were poorly stocked with 
fish — and those of inferior quality only — paid little attention to fish- 
ing, trusting to the larger resources of game and wild fruits. Else- 
where in Canada the fish-hook and the fish-spear, the net, trap, and 
weir, were as indispensable at certain seasons as the bow and arrow; 
and dried fish was a staple food in nearly every community during 
the first two months of winter. 
The Indians were well acquainted with the barb, which they 
used on spears and harpoons; but they generally avoided it on fish- 
hooks,- wbicli in consequence served oidy for jigging or trolling. 
Their bait was either some part of a fish — the eye, or the skin from 
the belly — or else a piece of bright bone, ivory, or even stone, often 
coloured, and, among the Eskimo and Kutchin, carved to imitate a 
fish. The Indians of the Atlantic and Pacific shores jigged from 
canoes in the bays and gulfs, catching mainly cod, halibut, and 
salmon; whereas the northern Indians and the Eskimo used their 
1 Compare, e.g., the use of nets for capturing seals under tlio ice, a practice formerly widespread 
among Eskimo tribes, and still in vogue in ihe IMackenzie della and in .41ask,a. The Greenland Eskimo 
often employ another well-known fi.shing method ; they drop a lure through a hole in the ice and har- 
poon the seal as it approachc."; the bait. Porsild, M, P. : "The Material Culiure of the Eskimo in 
West Greenland”: Meddelelser om Gr0nlaiKl, li, p. 133 (Copenhagen, 1915). 
- .A few fish-hook.s wiih line liarhs have itecti loiinrl on oli.l Iroipjoian sites. 
