They would try to arrange for two more Eskimos with a fresh
team to go on with him, but as for themselves, even were the dogs in
condition to travel, they did not know the trail beyond this point.
The Eskimos here, like those they had met on the island at Kangeva,
were engaged in seal hunting, and none of the men seemed to care to
leave their work for a long, hard journey south. They did not say,
however, that they would not go. When they were asked their answer
was:
"In a little while--perhaps."
This was very unsatisfactory to Bob in his anxious frame of mind. But
he had learned that Eskimos must be left to bide their time, and that
no amount of coaxing would hurry them, so he tried to await their
moods in patience. He understood the reluctance of the men to go away
during one of the best hunting seasons of the year and could not find
fault with them for it.
The seals were the mainstay of their living and to lose the hunt might
mean privation. They were in need of the skins for clothing, kayaks
and summer tents, and the flesh and blubber for food for themselves
and their dogs, and the oil for their stone lamps.
Later in the season they would harpoon the animals from their kayaks,
but this was the great harvest time when they killed them by spearing
through holes in the ice where the seals came at intervals to breathe,
for a seal will die unless it can get fresh air occasionally.
Pages:
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219