The most unpleasant thing about life in Eskimo Village is the mosquitoes which swarm in dark clouds in the Arctic regions during the long summer days. It is only by making a great smudge about the tents that the Eskimos can escape them. They drive the caribou nearly desperate, but Omingmong does not mind them as his coat is so long, and they do not much inhabit his cold latitude.
Whitie had a very novel way of escaping them, which greatly pleased Oumauk. When the mosquitoes had stung his eyes so that he could hardly see out of them, he would take to the water. There he would submerge himself and lie for hours with just the tip of his nose showing. If the mosquitoes swarmed on the end of his nose he would get even with them by drawing it under quickly and wetting them.
Thus the summer went with the Eskimo fishing and drying fish, gathering birds' eggs, and killing enough ducks and geese for their immediate need, and also gathering down for the market. They likewise tried out considerable seal oil for use in the stonelamp during the long night when they would need all the light they could get.
Then in the autumn came the annual migration back to Eskimo Town.
It was not a varied or exciting life, as a white boy would look at it. But to Oumauk it was full of wonder and mystery, for he was constantly learning of the wild life about him and of the ways of nature. As for Whitie, he grew and grew until he was finally forbidden to enter the igloo. But that was unnecessary, for when he was three years old he had grown so large that he could not crawl through the tunnel leading to Eiseeyou's igloo.
As he gained his full stature and weight, all the women in Eskimo Town became afraid of him. Many of the men were afraid of him as well. Some of them even counseled Eiseeyou to shoot him, but he would not hear of it. He knew that it would break Oumauk's heart. The Eskimo boy could do anything with the great shaggy beast. He was no more afraid of him than he was of the wolfish dogs. Probably no white boy ever loved a dog as Oumauk did Whitie.
Whitie by this time had acquired all the wisdom of a wild polar bear. He knew where to find the seal pups and kill them on the icefloe. He could even attack a full grown seal and kill that as well. He had several times performed that dangerous stunt of swimming upon the walrus herd when the adults were asleep and snatching a calf before they knew what was up. He knew where to find the ducks and geese eggs on the islands along the coast and he grew fat upon the delicious eggs. He knew all the berries and roots that a polar bear likes. He also knew how to drive the fish into the shallows along the shore and then strike them from the water with his big paw.