Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/104

"saddle-bags"; Parry says that a good dog can easily carry 20–25 pounds; I have seen powerful dogs carrying at least twice that weight, however.

It is particularly during removals and journeys while out caribou hunting in summer and early autumn that packdogs are used. As a rule the Eskimos themselves have to carry heavy burdens on these journeys; Hall^[1] refers to journeys of five miles with burdens of 100–125 lbs.

On October 4–5th 1923 we moved with two Eskimo families from Kûk to Hansine Lake on Southampton Island, a journey of 15 kilometres. which took us two days. It was a long and laborious carry. At 5.30 am we broke camp, packed and distributed the loads among seven persons and 20 dogs. Only one of the dogs had a proper pack-bag, two bags of sealskin joined by a piece of the same skin and hung over the dog's back. All the other dogs had harness on, and to this their loads were tied, two cords running from the pack round underneath the animal. One dog carried the tent-sheet (for the sealskin tent; weight at least 25 kg) and two small wooden posts; another a fur coat and two big tent poles which it dragged behind it; a third had a lot of meat and blubber wrapped up in skins; a fourth had a bag and a small box containing sundries, a fifth a bag of clothing, a sixth two caribou skins, and so on. Even the big pups had to carry something, if only an enamel cup on a cord round the neck. All the adult persons carried heavy burdens, which were scarcely less than 50 kg; these loads were usually so arranged that a strap passed across the breast and another across the brow. Only slow progress was made; at every moment the caravan had to stop because a dog had slipped its load, had lain down when its load had become disarranged; two started to fight, one began to eat its load, another got caught on two stones, and so on. On the first day we marched from noon until 5.30 pm but had to camp then owing to the darkness; the next day we went on another four hours before we reached our destination. A dog was then missed and a man had to go back to look for it; it had lain down through exhaustion and had to be kicked on after it had been relieved of a part of its burden.

The kayak (qajaq), which in certain other Eskimo areas plays such a fundamental part, is of comparatively slight importance here. so slight, indeed, that it has quite disappeared from among the Aivilingmiut and, with the exception of one, the Iglulingmiut too.