File:Modern travel, a record of exploration, travel (1921) (14777445324).jpg

Identifier: moderntravelreco00davi (find matches)
Title: Modern travel, a record of exploration, travel
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Davidson, Norman James. (from old catalog)
Subjects: Voyages and travels
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott company London, Seeley, Service & co., ltd.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ing the other side; then, with agreat howl Julius started the dogs, and the men alljumped on to the sledge as it careered safely over.Then the drivers turned and looked at one anotherand laughed ; it was, to them, a spice of excitement inthe monotony of sledge travel. The last few weeks before the freezing of the sea area busy time for the Eskimos ; the whole village is inthe ferment of a new excitement, for the seal-hunt isbeginning. Men and boys are busily getting theirkajaks ready for the water, lifting them down fromthe house-tops and scaffold-poles, searching for leakyplaces, smoothing the handles of paddles, busthng toand fro with harpoons and loops of lines, beamingwith eagerness, and evidently looking forward to theirfavourite season. Seals are captured either by net orharpoon, or sometimes shot with a rifle. The rifle is,however, driving seal, walrus and bear further north,to lonely haunts still free from the hated presence ofman. But the Eskimo is too conservative to give up
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ICE-BOUND SHORES OF LABRADOR 49 the ways of his fathers ; he still likes to shoulder hiskajak, and launch it with its weird and ingeniousequipment all ready for seal-hunting. The harpoon liesready at his right; and as he wields his paddle he isalways on the alert to let drive at the seal as it pops upfor air. The skill with the harpoon is a thing that theEskimos have not lost, nor, it is to be hoped, will theyever lose it. The seal is an agile beast, and ponderous withal, andwhen struck a sudden dive may chance to break theharpoon. To obviate this, the head of walrus tusk isjointed to the shaft by thongs, and on the end is looselyattached a barb, which is kept in place by a line loopedon to a knob on the shaft. To the end of this line abladder filled with air is attached. When the animalis struck the barb falls free, the head bends over, andthe shaft floats on the surface of the water, the tell-talebladder showing where the seal has gone down. Whenthe seal reappears it falls an easy v

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