As summertime came, the whole village waited for the exciting time when
the ice began to thaw and break up. The whales and walruses came back
into the Arctic Ocean. They swam up between long cracks in the ice
called "leads."
Eagerly the men and boys waited along the edges of the leads. Who would
see the first walrus? The day Hilltop went with the men in an umiak to
hunt whales in a lead was even more exciting. The men paddled a long
time before they saw a whale blowing its waterspout in the distance.
Then they quickly pulled the umiak out onto the ice and waited.
Suddenly the whale came up to blow again, not far away. The men all
fired their guns at once, aiming at its heart, which was deep in its
body and as big as a barrel.
[Illustration: a Copper Eskimo bow]
It took everybody in the village to pull the whale out onto the ice.
They used a block and tackle they had got from the white sailors.
Then, after the villagers had cut up the whale, they held a great
feast. There was plenty of meat and blubber for all--including the
dogs--and whalebone to be traded for more bullets and guns.