Kayak

“ The hunter has already pulled from its loop on the forward deck one of his pair of light lances and has it lying loose on deck, the butt resting on the loop in easy reach. As he ranges alongside his victim he catches it up—a quick downward thrust, and the deer floats a lifeless carcass.
It requires no small skill to manage one of these little craft without upsetting, but the boys begin to learn at an early age, so that balancing grows to be a second nature, and the kayak man is as much a part of his boat as a good rider is of his horse. Getting into a kayak, even, is an art in itself. ”

“ From this perch the thunderbirds, looking like a black cloud, would soar away, bringing back to their young a reindeer in their talons. Sometimes with a great noise like thunder they swooped down upon a fisherman in his kayak and carried him away. The man would be eaten by the young birds, and the kayak broken to bits in the nest. Every fall the young birds flew away into the northland, but the old birds remained in the nest. ”

“ The Esquimaux kayak has its framework of bone or drift-wood on which are stretched the seal-skins which convert it into a water-tight life-buoy, in which the skin-clad paddler can even turn over sideways and bring his boat up right on the other side. ”

“ Thus they lived in anxious watchings through weary days, the gale unabated. Finally, one night, the feared separation came. All hands except Mr. Meyers were in the tent; near them, so near a man could scarcely walk between, was the boat, containing Meyers and the kayak; but with mischievous intent, the crack run so as to send the boat drifting among the breaking and over-lapping ice. Mr. Meyers could not manage it, of course, under such circumstances, and the kayak was of no use to any but an Esquimo, so he set it afloat, hoping it would drift to the floe-party. ”

“ We therefore set off in our double kayak, as before, with the sledges athwart the deck fore and aft.
“The mist soon rose a little. It was then a dead calm; the surface of the water lay like a great mirror before us, with bits of ice and an occasional floe drifting on it. It was a marvellously beautiful sight, and it was indeed glorious to sit there in our light vessels and glide over the surface without any exertion. Suddenly a seal rose [341] in front of us, and over us flew continually ivory-gulls and fulmars and kittiwakes. ”

“ Narwhals played in schools, far off shore, and usually along the edges of some large ice field, their long ivory tusks rising under spouts of breath and spray. Whenever this glad sight was noted, every kayak about camp was manned, and the skin canoes went flittering like birds over the water. Some of the Eskimos climbed to the ice fields and delivered their harpoons from a secure footing. Others hid behind floating fragments of heavy ice and made a sudden rush as the animals passed. ”

“ One of the kayakers placed himself in his little craft directly across the course; another stationed himself at a distance, and then, pushing his kayak forward at his utmost speed, drove it directly over the other! The high sloping bow rose above the middle of the stationary kayak on which it impinged, and, shooting up quite out of water, the boat skimmed over.
The Esquimaux is an honest creature. I had engaged a woman to make me a pair of fur boots, leaving my name on a slip of paper. L——, next day, roaming among the huts, saw her hanging them out to dry. ”

“ The plan referred to consisted in making the man whose kayak has been lost lie out on what may be called the deck of a friend’s kayak. The well-known little craft named the “Rob Roy Canoe” bears much resemblance to the Eskimo kayak—the chief difference being that the former is made of thin, light wood, the latter of a light framework covered with sealskin. Both are long and narrow; decked entirely over, with the exception of a hole in the centre; can hold only one person, and are propelled with one double paddle having a blade at each end. ”

“ It is entirely covered except a hole for the hunter, who ties a waterproof, which is attached all round to the kayak, around his waist when seated. Then, with his double paddle, he faces the wildest seas with dauntless courage, and with his harpoon secures his prey with unerring aim. The Greenland kayak is the most perfect application of art and ingenuity to the pursuit of necessaries of life to be found within the Arctic Circle.
The use of the kayak among the Eskimo of Hudson’s23 Bay makes it probable that, at one time, there was some intercourse by way of Davis Strait. ”

“ A hole is pierced in the centre of the top of the boat, and the kayaker (also dressed in sealskin) laces himself up securely when seated to prevent the entrance of water. The kayak is propelled like a canoe by a double-bladed paddle. The name kayak is properly only applied to the boat used by an Eskimo man—that used by a woman is called an umiak. ”

“ It is grasped in the centre, and each end dipped alternately on either side of the kayak, as this canoe is called. Eskimo kayaks are first-rate sea-boats. They can face almost any sort of weather. They are extremely light, and are propelled by the natives very swiftly. In these frail canoes the natives of the Polar Regions pursue seals and whales, and even venture to attack the walrus in his native element. The kayak is used exclusively by the men. The oomiak, or women’s canoe, is of much larger and clumsier construction, somewhat like a boat. ”

“ One day when he awoke as usual about sunset, he got into his kayak all the same, and rowed off. Hardly had he passed out of sight of the houses, when he heard a man crying:
“My kayak has upset, help me.”
And he rowed over and righted him again, and then he saw that it was one of the Noseless Ones, the people from beneath the earth.
“Now I will give you all my hide thongs with ornaments of walrus tusk,” said the man who had upset.
“No,” said the wifeless man; “such things I am not fit to receive; the only thing I cannot overcome is my miserable sleepiness.” ”

“ Last, but not least, the kayak, with its tightly covered deck, is a most efficient sea-boat, in which one can get along in any kind of weather, and is also an admirable craft for shooting and fishing purposes. ”

“ The settlement of Kayak is upon it. The southern extremity of the larger island retains the name St. Elias for the splendid headland that plunges boldly and challengingly out into the sea. It is a magnificent sight in a storm, when sea-birds are shrieking over it and a powerful surf is breaking upon its base. At all times it is a striking landmark.
I have been to Kayak four times. Landings have always been made by passengers in dories or in tiny launches [Pg 239] which come out from the settlement, and which bob up and down like corks. ”

“ The emaciated men would have to drag the loaded boat over the hummocky ice without a sledge. The women and children must be added to the load or abandoned. It would be a struggle for life against odds more fearful than that which now oppressed them. But what should they do! God knew! Hark! what shout is that! "Kayak! kayak!" The kayak was at hand, but it had to be carried a mile. Yet it paid, for a seal shot by Joe was secured just in time to keep the men from utter desperation. ”

“ In summer the men often make quite long excursions across the country after reindeer, traveling mostly on the lakes and ponds, crossing from lake to lake with, the kayak carried on one arm, which, is thrust into the hole up to the elbow, with the hand grasping the frame inside. The trading-parties that go east in the spring start before there is any open water along the shore at Point Barrow, and travel along the level shore-ice with the umiak lashed to a flat sled drawn by the dogs and all the men and women. ”

“ Though the umiak is not a "woman's boat," the kayak is the man's boat par excellence. The Point-Barrow Eskimos, however, do not use kayaks as much as some others, especially the Greenlanders. All the men, however, and most well-grown youths own kayaks of very good model, and can manage these ticklish craft very skillfully, though they can not compete with the Greenlanders. ”

“ For a moment he thought he was too late; but after a little he managed to swing one leg up on to the edge of the sledge, which lay on the deck, and in this way he scrambled on board. The kayaks were lashed together so as to form a double boat, and the only way in which, owing to his stiffness, he could paddle them was to take one or two strokes on one side and then step into the other kayak and take a few strokes on the other side. The return was consequently slow, but it was a return, though the ice was reached a long way from where the drifting had begun. ”

“ The only food he takes with him is a plug of tobacco. He carries the kayak to the water, puts his weapons where he can get his hands on them instantly, climbs into the hole amidship and fastens his jacket round the circular rim.
He may have to go a dozen miles out to sea. Now and then, to vary the paddling, he throws a bird-dart. Like the Eskimo harpoon, this dart and the stick that throws it are most ingenious contrivances, and beautifully wrought.
The hunter grabs the beak of a wounded bird [131] in his teeth, and with a wrench breaks the creature's neck. ”

“ Their diffusion to the east coast could not have gone on rapidly. In the ice-bound regions they may have forgotten the use of the kayak, as the Eskimo of Smith Sound had done until thirty years ago, when they became acquainted with it again through a chance immigration from the west. In any case their practice in building and using kayaks must have greatly fallen off. ”

“ The kayak (qajaq) is almost exclusively used for hunting by all Eskimo tribes from Greenland to Alaska. According to Bessels the Ita natives do not know its use, though they have retained the word. As a connection exists between this tribe and those of Baffin Land, I have no doubt that they are acquainted with the use of the boat, though it may be of little avail in that ice encumbered region. When I first visited the tribes of Davis Strait no kayak was to be found between Cape Mercy and Cape Raper, nor had there been any for several years. ”

“ And not a single kayak is fast to a whale. Let’s ask about it.”
Hurrying to the deck the boys approached Captain Edwards. “Oh, Captain,” cried Tom, “what are those big round things out there by the Eskimos’ kayaks? And how is it not a single kayak is fast to a whale? Those fellows must be dubs not to get fast when they’re right among the whales.”
The skipper roared with laughter. “Dubs!” he exclaimed. “Why, my boys, I’ll warrant not a Eskimo missed gettin’ fast. ”

“ The kayak was within ten paces of the entrance to the hut, and the loaded guns, which can never be kept in an Esquimo hut on account of the moisture, were in and leaning against the kayak. If the bear should take a notion to put his nose at the hut door, and, liking the odor, knock down the snow wall with his strong paw, and commence a supper on one of its inmates, what was to hinder him? But bears, like many young people, often fail to improve their golden opportunities. ”

“ Look; their gifts are so many that we must carry the load upon our heads.”
But that comrade would not change his purpose, not for all the trying of the other to turn him from it. And at last the other ceased to speak of it.
Now as the cold grew stronger, that opening in the ice became smaller and smaller, at the place where Qujâvârssuk was used to go with his kayak. One day, when he came down to it, there was but just room for his kayak to go in, and if now a seal should rise, it could not fail to strike the kayak. ”

“ Life and death, not merely a name in the newspapers, are in it. Of all vehicles, on land or sea, to which man intrusts himself, the kayak is safest and unsafest. It is a very hair-bridge of Mohammed: security or destruction is in the finest poise of a moving body, the turn of a hand, the thought of a moment. Every time that the Esquimaux spears a seal at sea, he pledges his life upon his skill. With a touch, with a moment's loss of balance, the tipsy craft may go over ”

“ Hunter in kayak. The creature behind is a monster that frightens all the seal away.
Hunters encountering Sarqiserasak, a dangerous troll, who rows in a half kayak himself, and upsets all he meets with his paddle.
as from the bladder float, and this although there was no one there. This thing the old man did not like at all. When the winter was coming near, the old man said one day to Qujâvârssuk:
"Now that time will soon be here when the whales come in to the coast." ”

“ And when that stranger came nearer, they looked eagerly to see who it might be. And when Kilitêraq came nearer—for it was Kilitêraq who came—he looked round among the kayaks, and when he saw that Kánagssuaq was among them, he thrust his way through and came close up to him, and stuck his paddle in between the thongs [156] on Kánagssuaq’s kayak, and then loosened the skin over the opening of his own kayak, and put his hand in behind, and drew out a splendid tow-line made of walrus hide and beautifully worked with many beads of walrus tooth. ”

“ One day, paddling southward in his kayak, as was his custom, he started to search all the little bird cliffs. And coming to the foot of one of them, he saw that which he so greatly wished to see; the carrion of a big cormorant, which had now become a skeleton. It lay there quite easy to see. But there was no way of coming to the place where it was, not from above nor from below, nor from the side. Yet he would try. He tied his hunting line fast to the cross thongs on his kayak, and thrust his hand into a small crack a little way up the cliff. ”

“ The water was fairly open, and the ice so good, that at one place I could sail the kayak over it, the wind sending me sliding at a fine pace. Being on the west coast of Franz Josef Land, I was in as favourable a situation as possible, and I turned my bow southward with much hope, keeping a good many days just in sight of land. ”