84 ALL ABOARD FOR SUNRISE LANDS.

“Cubbered all ober?” asked Siah. “Whar do der Skim-mer-hose
get in?”

“Tn the centre is a hoop of bone that is big enough to let a
man’s body through, and the proprietor sits there. In the boat I
inspected, he seemed to be laced in, the lower edge of his jacket
being laced to the rim of the hole. Then the water is kept out.
The feller had one oar about six feet long, broad like the blade
of a paddle at each end, and how they managed that ticklish boat
without a keel you see, I couldn’t understand, but manage they
did. They would go shootin’ over the waters, when the spray was
flyin’ and the sea rough.”

“But that is not the only kind of boat they have there,” observed
Ralph. “So I have read.” |

“Not the only one? Of course not,” promptly replied Jack who
did not mean to be found napping on the subject of Arctic navigation.
“They have what they call an oomiak, and that is a woman’s boat,
sometimes twenty-five feet long and a third as broad. It will carry
‘wenty people then. Sometimes they have a sail for the oomiak.”

“A sail?” inquired Siah. “Where dey git de clof?”

“Inside the walrus, boy. The walrus is one of their factories for
furnishin’ cloth. You heard me say they covered their kayaks with
seal skin, and now the walrus is another factory. I think the Esquimaux
are excellent boatmen, but I don’t know as I like to see one of ’em
flyin’ along over the water in a kayak, though interestin’, ‘any better
than an Indian skimmin’ over the ground on snow-shoes,” observed
Jack skilfully changing the subject and temptingly inviting his auditors
to the consideration of another subject.

“Snow shoes!” cried Rick, his eyes peaduy enlarging. “Did you
_ ever see an Indian on snow-shoes?”

How he envied Jack!