The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-01-06
THE PEOPLE OF THE NORTH.
Eskimo Women and Children Out FishiD &
Through the Ice.

Eskimo Women and Children Out Fishing
Through the Ice.
When the long and cold winter settles
on the Arctic regions the land animals
are chiefly conspicuous by their absence,
and were it not for the fish, which can
not get away, the natives would surely
starve to death. But wherever there is
a level field of fresh ice inciosed by
lines of hummocl1s the fish are sure to
be plenty. Such a field, not more than
a half-mile long, has more than once
afforded a living to an entire village. I
know of one particular instance, during
q season in 1888, when the ice was very
unfavora bic for sealing, and food was
pretty scarce in the village.
The fishing is carried on mostly by
the women and children, though one
or two old men generally go out, and
one or two OF the younger men, when
they cannot go scaling and food Is
wanted at the house, will join the fish
ing party. Each fisherman is provided
with d long handled ice-pick, which he
frequently leaves sticking in the snow
near the fshing-ground, long line
made of strips of whalebone, reeled
lengthwise on a slender wooden shuttle
eighteen inches long and provided with
copper sinker and two pear-shaped "jigs'
of walrus ivory, armed with four barb
less hooks of copper and scoop or dipper
made of reindeer antlers, with a wood
en- handle two feet long. Hardly ar
Esquimaux, and especially an Esqui-
maux boy, stirs out of the house in the
winter without one of these scoops III
his hand To every party of two or
three there viii also be 4 good-sized
bag of sealskin, made of piece OF an
old kayak cover. Tor bringing home the
fish.
Arriving at the fishing grounds, each
proceeds to pick hole through the ice,
which is quite four feet thick, clearing
out the chips with the scoop. The
Gigs are then let down through the
hole and enough line unreeled to keep
them just clear of the bottom, where
the fish are playing about. The reel is
held in the right hand, and serves as
short rod, while the scoop is held in the
left hand and used to keep the hole
clear of the scum of new ice. which, of
course, is constantly forming. The line
is kept in constant motion. jerked up
quickly short distance, and then al
lowed to drop back, so that the little
fish that are nosing about the white
''jigs, after the manner Of Goldfish, are
hooked in the jaw.
As soon as the fisherman feels a fish
on his hook, he catches up d blight of
the line with his scoop and another be-
low this with his reel, and thus reels
up the line on these two sticks in loose
coils until the fish is brought 20 the
surface. when a skillful toss throws
him off the barbless hook on the ice,
where he gives one convulsive Hap and
instantly freezes solid. The elastic
whalebone line is thrown of the sticks
without tangling, and paid out through
the hole again for another trial II fish
are not found plenty at the first hole,
the fisherman shifts mis- ground until he
STRIKES a school" They are some
times so plenty that they NAV be caught
as fast as they can be hauled up One
woman will bring in upward OF
bushel of little fish--they are generally
about five or six inches long-f-om
single days fishing.
This fishing lasts until the middle Of
May, when the ice begins 10 soften. \
good many are also caught along the
shore in Noven Der. in about foot OF
water. when there are no tlde-cracSs II
the ice At this season the EsQuimauN
use a little rod, only two feet long,
with q short line and a little ivory
squid, az which the dsh bite. Forest
and Ocean.