Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/51

32 were there running and whirling around in the wildest and most fantastic way, carrying on their foaming surface small bergs, "sconce" pieces, and ice fragments of all shapes, in utter disregard of each other. When the tide turned, these masses came whirling back, as if madly bent on heaping destruction wherever they could. This scene in Bear Sound was singularly grand and striking. With regard to these tides I will not say much here, reserving such subjects for the Appendix; but I soon found this to be a subject requiring attentive consideration, and this I afterward had an opportunity of giving to it.

As to egging and duck-hunting, I can say no more about it now. The ducks were very numerous, flying over our heads in every direction. They were in the water drifting with the swiftly-running tide, on the ice, and on nearly every one of the numerous islands we passed. Wherever we saw a great many upon or around an island, we visited it for eggs.

The first island we pulled to was one in the midst of a sweeping, driving tide, so that it seemed to defy all human exertions to approach it; yet, after "a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether," we conquered. The boat was taken round to the opposite side of the island from that where the tide struck it, and though the water rolled and tumbled as if mad, we managed by a plan of our own to get upon the top of the magnificent "ice-collar" that engirdled the island. This was the first time in my life that I saw eider-ducks' nests, and consequently the first occasion in which I aided in abstracting the large, luscious eggs. In ten minutes four of us gathered six dozen, and at another island, in twenty minutes, sixteen dozen and five. The eggs taken are replaced by fresh ones, as the ducks lay every two or three days. Many ducks were shot, but, owing to the swift tide, only a few were obtained. The rest were swept away. In speaking of the "ice-collars" surrounding the islands, I may mention that if they had been simply perpendicular the difficulty in mounting them would not have been so great; but they projected over from ten to thirty feet, and when the