Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-26

out since early dawn at the seal holes,
eight miles away, on the ice at the edge of
the foe. and had come home with three big
seals. Half way down the long, low snow
passage or tunnel, that led to the inner
door of the house, you could hear snap
pings and yelpngs, as the dogs of his
sleigh team, released from their days work,
scuffled for warm places.
When the yelpings grew too loud, kotuko
lazily rolled off the sleeping bench, and,
picking up dog whip with eighteen
twenty-five feet of heavy plated thong, he
OWED into the passage. where 1t sounded as
though all the dogs were eating him alive;
but that was no more than their regular
grace before meals. When he crawled out
of the far end of the passage half dozen
furry heads followed him with their eyes
as he went to short gallowS Of whale
Jaw bones, from which the dogs meat was
hung, split off the frozen stuff in big Jumps
with broad-headed spear, and stood, his
whip in one hand and the meat in the other.
Each beast was called by name-the weak
est first-and woe betide any dog that
moved out of his turn. for the tapering
lash would shoot out like thonged lightning
and flick away an inch or so Of hair and
hide. Each beast simply growled once,
Strapped once, choked once over his portion,
and hurried back to The protection of the
snow passage, while the boy stood on the.
snow under the blazing northern lights and
dealt out justice. The last to be served was
the big black leader of the team, who kept
order when they were harnessed. and to
him Kotuko gave a double allowance of
meat well as an extra crack of the
whip.
"Ah." said Kotuko. coiling up the lash.
81 have little one over the lamp that
will make great many howlings. Sar-
pok! Get lnv'
He crawled back over the huddled dogs,
busted the dry snow from his furs with
the whalebone beaten that Amoraq kept
by the door; tapped the skin-lined roof Of
the house to shake off any iccles that
ro1l 30 dow 80
above. and curled up on the bench The
dogs in the passage snored and whined in
their sleep, the boy baby in Amoraq's deep
fur hood kicked and choked and gurgled.
and the mother of the newly named puppy
lay at Kotuko's side her eyes fixed on the
bundle of sealskin-warm and safe above
the broad. yellow fame of the lamp.
And all this happened far away to the
north; beyond Labrador, beyond Hudson's
strait. where the great tides throw the
ice about, north of Melville peninsula
north even of the narrow Fury and Hecla
straits the north shore of Baffin Land,
where Bylot's Island stands above the ice
of Lancaster sound like a pudding bowl
wrong side up. North of Lancaster sound
there is nothing We know anything about
except North Devon and ElleSmere Land;
but even there live few scattered people
next door, as it were, to the very pole.
Kadu was an Inuit-what you call an
Esquimau-and his tribe, some fifty per-
sons all told, belonged to the TunuWrmlut
the country lying at the back of some
thing" In the maps that desolate coast Is
called Navy Board inlet; but the mutt name
is BEST because the country lies at the very
back of everything in the world. For nine
months of the year there is only ice as
hard as rock, snow and gale after gale.
with cold that no one realize who
has never seen the thermometer go down
even to zero. For six months Of those
nine it is dark and that is what makes il
so horrible. For the three months of the
summer it only freezes every other day and
every ether night, and then the snow be-