Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/79

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jorsaq) Image missingFig. 36.Salmon spear. is a stick of wood in which is inserted a cross-pin of pointed bone; it was enveloped in blubber, tied to a line fastened to a stone on the shore and thrown into the water; when the gull swallowed it, the stick caught in its throat. Similar hooks, but bigger still, are sometimes used for fulmars.

A snow-house (naujasiorvik) is built, just large enough to contain a man; at the top is a small opening, wide enough Image missingFig. 37.Fore end of salmon spear. for him to put his hand through and seize the gull by the legs; the gull is attracted by meat laid on the roof.[1] In an early grave found at Qilalukan[2] a bone hook was found, and the Eskimos assert that it was used for seizing a gull by the leg on such occasions; a similar specimen was found at C. Griffith.

It was told that sometimes a live gull is laid on its back on the ice, its wings being held down by stones; other gulls swoop down at it and it holds them fast in its claws so that the catcher can take them.

Geese were sometimes driven into large stone enclosures, where they were killed with sticks when they were very fat and could not fly. It is said that such enclosures are still to be seen at Piling, circular, up to breast height, with long stone fences leading to it. The women often put a string through the nostrils of the geese in order to make transportation easier.

Lyon[3] mentions that at nesting time the Igluliks caught large numbers of geese on the island of Nerdlunartoq. north of Iglulik. Hall[4] says that at Nuvuk the Eskimos pursued swimming ducks in kayaks until they became exhausted by diving and were drowned.

Fishing.

The only fish that is regularly caught is the salmon trout: on the other hand there are such large quantities of it that, in places, it is of great economic importance; there are several species but the methods of catching them are the same.

From the ice. When the fresh waters freeze over in the autumn, salmon fishing goes on through holes in the ice on

  1. ↑ See Parry 1824 p. 514.
  2. ↑ Arch. Centr. Esk. I Pl. 65.22
  3. ↑ 1824 p. 449.
  4. ↑ 1879 p. 103.
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