All told I made four expeditions on Sir William's behalf, during a period of
six years, along the East Coast of Hudson Bay, through the barren lands of the
hitherto unexplored peninsula of Ungava, along the west coast of Ungava Bay and
along the southern coast of Baffin Land. This work culminated in the discovery
of the Belcher Island archipelago in Hudson Bay -a land mass which occupies
5,000 square miles- upon this land mass were discovered extensive deposits of
iron ore but all of too low a grade, however, to be of economic importance. As a
part of my exploration equipment, on these expeditions, a motion-picture outfit
was included. It was hoped to secure films of the North and Eskimo life, which
might prove to be of enough value to help in some way to defray some of the
costs of the explorations. While wintering in Baffin Land during 1913-14 films
of the country and the natives were made as was also done on the succeeding
expedition to the Belcher Islands. The film, in all, about 30,000 feet, was
brought out safely, at the conclusion of the explorations, to Toronto, where,
while editing the material, I had the misfortune of losing it all by fire.
Though it seemed to be a tragedy at the time, I am not sure but what it was a
bit of fortune that it did burn, for it was amateurish enough.
My interest in films, from then on, grew.
New forms of travel film were coming out and the Johnson South Sea Island
film particularly seemed to me to be an earnest of what might be done in the
North. I began to believe that a good film depicting the Eskimo and his fight
for existence in the dramatically barren North might be well worth while. To
make a long story short, I decided to go north again- this time wholly for the
purpose of making films.
Mr. John Revillon and Captain Thierry Mallet of Revillon Freres became
interested and decided to finance my project. It proved to be a happy
arrangement, for among the Revillon Freres' vast system of fur posts which lie
scattered through northern Canada I was enabled to use one of these posts as the
nucleus for my work. This post was on Cape Dufferin on northeastern Hudson Bay
and about 800 miles north of the rail frontier in northern Ontario. The journey
thither began on the eighteenth of June, 1920. With Indians by canoe, I followed
the Moose River to Moose Factory on James Bay. From thence northward a small
schooner was taken to my destination where I arrived in the middle of August.
The resources of the Revillon Freres fur trade post at Cape Dufferin were at my
disposal. One of the two living quarters which comprised the Post was mine as
living quarters and film laboratory combined.
My equipment included 75,000 feet of film, a Haulberg electric light plant
and projector and two Akeley cameras and a printing machine so that I could make
prints of film as it was exposed and project the pictures on the screen so that
thereby the Eskimo would be able to see and understand wherever mistakes were
made.
Of the Eskimo who were known to the Post, a dozen all told I selected for the
film. Of these, Nanook, a character famous in the country, was my chief man.
Besides him and much to his approval, I selected three younger men as helpers.
This also meant their wives and families, dogs to the number of about
twenty-five, their sledges, kayacks, and hunting impedimenta.
As luck would have it, the first film to be made was the walrus hunt. From
Nanook, I first heard of the "Walrus Island" which is a small island far out at
sea and inaccessible to the Eskimo during the open water season since it is far
out enough so as not to be seen from land.
On the island's south end, a surf-bound beach, there were, in summer, Nanook
said, many walrus, judging from signs that had been seen by a winter sealing
crowd of Eskimo who, caught by a break up of the ice, had been forced to live
the until late spring, when, by building an umiak of driftwood and sealskins and
by digging out the open water lands of ice which had not yet cleared from the
coast, they succeeded in getting on to the mainland. Nanook was very keen about
my going, for, as he said, "It is many moons since I have hunted the summer
walrus."
When I had decided upon taking the trip the whole country-side was
interested. There was no lack of applicants for the trip. Everyone gave me some
particular reason why he should be included in the expedition. With an open-seas
boat twenty-five feet long rigged with a leg -o'-mutton sail we started, a
throng of Eskimo, their wives, children and dogs assembled on the beach to see
us off.
A few miles from the Post we reached the open sea when for three days we
waited on the coast for easy weather in order to undertake the crossing. We
finally reached the island one day at nightfall, and landed on what was nothing
but a low waste of bed rock and boulders a mile and a half long and the whole of
its shoreland ringed with booming surf. Around the luxury of a driftwood fire
(driftwood is rare on the mainland) we lounged far into the night, speculating
mainly on what chances there might be for walrus. As luck would have it just as
we were turning in, from Nanook suddenly came an exclamation "Iviuk! Iviuk!" and
the bark of a school of walrus resounded through the air. When early the next
morning we went over, we found much to our disappointment that the walrus herd
had gone into the sea again but presently one after another and near the shore
the heads of a big school of walrus shot up above the sea, their wicked tusks
gleaming in the sun. As long as they were in the water no films could be made
and we returned again to the camp. For the next two days we made almost hourly
trips to that beach before finally we found them- a herd of twenty- asleep and
basking in the sand on the shore. Most fortunately, they lay at a point where in
approaching, we could be screened from their view by a slight rise in the
ground. Behind the rise, I mounted the camera and Nanook, stringing his harpoon,
began slowly snaking over the crest. From the crest to where they lay was less
than fifty feet and until Nanook crawled to within half that distance toward
them none took any alarm. For the rest of the way, whenever the sentinel of the
herd slowly raised his head to look around, Nanook lay mo
