Page:Across the sub-Arctics of Canada (1897).djvu/150

 often be seen running about gnawing pieces of walrus hide as if they were apples. Sometimes, however, they have no walrus hide or meat of any kind to gnaw, for occasionally in the spring season the condition of the snow and ice is such as to render hunting impossible, and though they store up meat in the fall for winter use, it is often exhausted before spring.

When this state of things occurs the condition of the Eskimos is deplorable in the extreme. They are forced to kill and eat their wretched dogs, which are even more nearly starved than themselves, and next they resort to their skin clothing and moccasins, which they soak in water until they become soft, though perhaps not altogether palatable.

HALF-BREED HUNTER WITH WOODEN SNOW-GOGGLES.

Next to starvation, perhaps the most severe affliction the Eskimo has to endure is that of snow blindness. This trouble is very prevalent in the spring season, and is caused by the exposure to the strong glare of the sun upon the glistening fields of snow and ice. Snow blindness is thus in reality acute inflammation of the eyes, and the pain caused by it is excruciating, being like what one would expect to suffer if his