Page:The white czar; a story of a polar bear (IA whiteczarstoryof00hawk).pdf/115

 every few minutes and by taking it down and killing the entangled birds, the work of catching the poor auk went merrily on.

It would have been cruel sport had not these bright skins been most useful to the Eskimo; but as it was, he was merely killing the auk as a farmer would his chickens.

He brought along a large gunny sack in which to carry back the catch. If he was lucky and the birds were flying freely, in an afternoon he would net from three to five hundred birds.

When we remember that the skins of these birds are made into the Eskimos' winter shirt, and also that the meat is very fine eating, even for a white man, the usefulness of the auk is at once appreciated.

When Eiseeyou, and Oumauk and Whitie finally trudged back to Eskimo Town with their sack full of dead birds, Oumauk was the proudest boy in the village.

There was one menace from which little Oumauk had a hard time defending his pet, and that was the wolfish sledge dogs. These savage canines are very little removed from