Hundreds of stories could be told regarding the hardships which form
part of the daily life of the Canadian Eskimos, also their
resourcefulness and their endurance.
Five years ago in August, near Cape Dufferin, two Eskimos started
paddling in their kayaks along the shore. Each man in his little craft
had his son—one five years old, the other seven. After a few hours, they
decided to go to some islands six miles off shore to look for sea gulls’
eggs. Not caring to take the two children out so far, in case a storm
came up, they left them on the beach and told them to wait.
The two little boys remained there all day. Night came. They huddled
together, shivering, in the lee of a rock. When dawn appeared there were
no signs of the two men. Another day and another night passed; still the
children waited, feeding on seaweed and small shell fish which they
found along the beach.
[Illustration: Two young Canadian Eskimo boys]
When the third day came they decided to walk back, following the shore,
to the tribe. Going round the bays, climbing up and down huge slides of
rocks, walking inland each time they found rivers they could not swim
until they discovered a place to ford them, those two boys—aged five and
seven, respectively—never lost heart.
Picking up on the beach what they could find to eat, they eventually got
back to the tribe after two days and nights of constant traveling. They
were footsore, wet to the bone, and famished.
They gave the alarm and a small party of men paddled immediately to the
islands. There they found the two men marooned amidst hundreds of nests
on which they had been feeding.
It appears that on their arrival, four days before, they had at first
gone to sleep on the beach in the sun, leaving their kayaks partly out
of the water. The tide rose and the two kayaks drifted out of sight.
They had suffered no hardships—having plenty of food and being confident
that eventually some one would come to look for them.
Furthermore, they did not feel anxious about the children. In their
minds, a thirty mile walk alone on the rugged seashore, the fording of
three swift rivers, and the lack of food and the exposure during four
consecutive days and nights, could not possibly harm two little Eskimo
boys of five and seven.