They can only hunt walrus successfully at Depot Island with a southerly
wind to hold the ice-pack to the floe. Seals are hunted with dogs to
find the blow-hole of amog-low, or seal igloo, which, often covered
with loose snow, is hidden from the hunter. When found, a wall of snow
is built as a protection against the wind, while the hunter waits for
hours, and sometimes for days, until the seal comes up to blow, when he
is struck through the hole in the ice with a spear and held by a line
attached to the boat. It is necessary for this style of hunting that
the weather should be such that one can see at a short distance, or on
the trackless waste of smooth ice the hunter is apt to get lost. Most
of the time we were here it was blowing so that land could not be seen
at one hundred yards' distance. It might be well to explain here that,
when the wind blows, the dry snow fills the air so that it is thicker
than the severest snow-storm in the temperate zone. The Inuits call
this condition of affairs "pairk-se-uk-too", and one can witness
it almost daily during the winter.
It was the eighth day after our arrival before the storm abated
sufficiently to let the hunters out with any prospect of success.
The wind was still from the north, and it was very provoking that
they could see plenty of walrus and seal on the pack, but far beyond
their reach.
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