132 
ESQUIMAUX HABITS. 
ilied by tbe grim-visaged father, surging in loving trios 
from crack to crack, sporting around the berg-water or 
basking in the sun. While thus on their tours, they 
invite their vigilant enemies to the second method of 
capture. This also is by the lance and harpoon; but 
it often becomes a regular battle, the male gallantly 
fronting the assault and charging the hunters with 
furious bravery. Not unfrequently the entire family, 
mother, calf, and bull, are killed in one of these 
contests. 
The huts—those poor, miserable, snow-covered dens— 
are now scenes of life and activity. Stacks of jointed 
meat are piled upon the ice-foot; the women are stretch¬ 
ing the hide for sole-leather, and the men cutting out a 
reserve of harpoon-lines for the winter. Tusky walrus- 
heads stare at you from the snow-bank, where they are 
stowed for their ivory; the dogs are tethered to the 
ice; and the children, each one armed with the curved 
rib of some big amphibion, are playing ball and bat 
among the drifts. 
On the day of my arrival, four walrus were killed at 
Etah, and no doubt many more by Kalutak at Peter- 
avik. The quantity of beef which is thus gained 
during a season of plenty, one might suppose, should 
put them beyond winter want; but there are other 
causes besides improvidence which make their supplies 
scanty. The poor creatures are not idle: they hunt 
indomitably, without the loss of a day. When the 
storms prevent the use of the sledge, they still work in 
stowing away the carcasses of previous hunts. An 
