Comock

by Edmund Carpenter (Editor)

While on a hunting expedition in Hudson's Bay in 1912 - ten years before the making of his film Nanook of the North - Robert Flaherty encountered an overcrowded, leaking, sealskin and whalebone vessel. This cockle shell contraption, kept afloat by inflated seal bladders, held Comock, his wife, their 11 children, and two dogs. Ten years earlier Comock, or Qumaq as it would now be spelt, traversed the arctic ice flows with his family in search of an island reputed to be rich in caribou and seals. While several family members and most of their belongings were lost en route, thanks to Comock's skill as a hunter they not only survived but thrived in one of the world's harshest environments.

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968