Report on the Dominion Government Expedition to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Islands on board the D.G.S. Neptune, 1903-1904

by A. P. Low

The framework is heavy, and the sides are kept in place by a number of cross thwarts, which also serve as seats for the rowers. The covering is made from the large skins of the Big seal (Phoca barbata), sewn together in a manner similar to the covering of the kyak. This craft is rowed by the women, usually with an old man as steersman. It is propelled by rude oars made from small trees, the handle being formed from the thick part, while the blades are made by attaching strips on two sides of the smaller end. Two or more women pull each oar, which vary in number from two to four.

The only place where such boats are known by the writer to be used is along the south side of Hudson strait and about Ungava bay. Elsewhere the whaleboat has been found more convenient, and when the planking is worn out they are covered with sealskin.

During the month of June the weather is generally fine, and ducks and geese are plentiful in the open water of the ponds and sea. The ice becomes very rotten towards the end of the month, and soon after breaks away from the shores, when the kyaks come into use. This is the most pleasant season of the year for the Eskimos, and they always sing about its pleasures in their sing-songs to be described later. Game of all kinds is abundant; the deer come to the coast at this season; seals are plentiful in the open water, and walruses are floating about on the loose ice; the Arctic salmon swarm in the shallow water along the coast, and thousands of eggs of the sea fowl may be collected from any of the smaller outer islands. A little later the white porpoise enters the mouths of the larger rivers in schools, and is killed with the harpoon and gun from the kyaks. The summer harpoon differs from the winter one, in that the iron work of the latter is replaced by ivory obtained from walrus tusks. The handle is stout, and made of wood from four to six feet long; at one end it is tipped with ivory, with a cone-like socket in its upper side, into which a similar cone on the lower end of the ivory shaft fits. The two are joined together by a thong of seal-line passing through holes in the ivory of each piece about two inches from their ends. This thong is made tight, and holds the cones in place while the harpoon is in use and until the head enters some animal, when the weight of the shaft causes the cones to slip and the shaft hangs loose from the wooden handle. The shaft is usually made from a single tusk, and is from twelve to eighteen inches long, but sometimes it is made by splicing two pieces, and they are joined by bands of lead run through mortised holes in the two pieces. The shaft in its lower end at the cone is usually over an inch in diameter, and tapers slowly to the upper end, where it is about a quarter of an inch thick. There is generally the natural curve of the tusk in the shaft, so that it is not quite straight. An ivory head fits the upper end of the shaft, and it is tipped by an arrow-pointed piece of iron, usually an old knife blade, let into a slit in the ivory and secured by rivets. The head is about four inches long, and is pierced near the middle for a seal-line attached to it. This line is several yards long, and is fastened at its outer end to a whole sealskin blown up to act as a float and drag to the animal harpooned. The head of the harpoon is kept in place by a loop on the line, which fits tightly over a peg on the side of the wooden handle when the head shaft and handle are adjusted in line. The harpoon is thrown at the seal, walrus or whale, and its weight is sufficient to drive the head completely through the skin; the cones between handle and shaft then turn and disjoint allowing the line to slip off the peg on the handle, so that the head separates from the remainder, which floats away. The sealskin bladder is thrown overboard, and after a few wild rushes the animal comes to the surface, dragging it along. The native then either shoots, or kills with the lance. The lance is somewhat similar in construction to the harpoon, but is without the head, the ivory shaft terminating in a wide steel blade usually cut out of a saw or large knife, and is without barbs.

The other weapon of the kyak is the duck dart used to entangle the eider ducks when they become fat and lazy in the late summer. This instrument consists of a light wooden shaft five or six feet long, with a trident of deer horn at its upper end. The pieces of horn are from six to eight inches long, and about half an inch in diameter; their sides are notched by a number of barbs pointing downwards, and they are so set at the head of the shaft as to project outwards at an angle of 45°, while each piece of horn makes an angle of 120° with its neighbours. Similar barbed prongs are attached to the shaft about a foot from the upper end. The lower end of the shaft is flattened, and made tapering to fit a groove in a throwing board held in the hand of the hunter. This dart is very skilfully thrown many yards, and entangles itself about the necks or in the wings of the ducks.

Summer Tents at Wakeham Bay.

As the middle of August approaches, the natives who have been living on the coast, and who have generally secured several sealskins full of porpoise or seal oil for the next winter’s use, start inland for the annual deer hunt, only leaving behind the old people who cannot tramp long distances. These pick up a living during the absence of the younger people by fishing and hunting birds. The barren-ground caribou collect in great bands in September for the mating season and for their annual migration southward. At this time their skins are in the best condition for clothing, and the Eskimos kill them at certain localities where they are known to pass on their way south. These places are often far away from the summer hunting grounds on the coast. Going to the hunting grounds the course of some river is generally followed, the men travelling in their kyaks, while the women, children and dogs all carry heavy loads overland. The early autumn is spent on the deer grounds, and a return to the coast is not made until sufficient snow has fallen to allow of the use of the dog sleds. The men first travel light to the coast to fetch the sled left there the previous spring. On their return the heavy, slow work of hauling out the meat and skins commences, and as several loads are often necessary, with the days very short and the snow soft, it often happens that Christmas arrives before the coast is again reached, and the trip for the trading post again undertaken.

This is a short description of the life of an Eskimo living in the northwestern part of the Labrador peninsula, and is typical of the life of the free native in the north. Of course, the routine varies in different localities. On the west side of Hudson bay the Kenipitus live inland, and depend entirely upon the caribou for food, clothing and fuel. A large number of these natives only leave their hunting grounds for short visits to the whalers, to renew their supplies of ammunition and tobacco, or go to the northward to hunt the musk-ox in the spring.

The Aivilliks of that coast confine themselves chiefly to the seaboard. Their name signifies walrus hunters, and they go inland in the autumn only to procure sufficient deerskins for their winter clothing.

The Nechilliks and Igluliks, living farther north, do not often come in contact with the whalers, and depend largely on their southern neighbours for ammunition and other articles of civilization. They are in a much more primitive state, without any modifications in their ancient customs and beliefs. The greater number are without guns, and kill their game with the bow and arrow or with the spear.