496 STORES OF FOOD. 



cording to Belcher, made of split timber, nicely smoothed and 

 carefully caulked with moss. Underneath is often a large 

 store-room, for in summer they kill many reindeer, whales, 

 walrus, seals, swans, ducks, etc., the greater part of which are 

 laid by for winter use. One of these winter stores is thus 

 expressively, though somewhat hastily, described by Sir E. 

 Belcher :* " It was frozen into a solid mass beneath, but loose 

 from those on the surface, and seemed to be incorporated, by 

 some unexplained process, into a gelatinous snow, which they 

 scraped up easily with the hand and ate with satisfaction 

 fish oil predominating. It was not offensive nor putrid. How 

 many years the lower mass may have remained there I could 

 not determine." He estimates the quantity of solid meat in 

 this storehouse alone at 71,424 pounds. Captain Eoss also 

 mentions ( the large stores of food laid up by the Esquimaux 

 of Boothia Felix during the summer for winter use. The 

 habit does not, however, appear to be general among the 

 Esquimaux, though they all of them make "caches" of meat 

 under stone cairns. 



Charlevoix derives the name "Esquimaux" from the Indian 

 word Esltimantsik, which means "eaters of raw food;" many 

 of these northern tribes being in the habit of eating their meat 

 uncooked. We must in justice to them remember that several 

 of our Arctic Expeditions have adopted the same custom, 

 which seems indeed in those latitudes highly conducive to 

 health. | 



Their food, if cooked at all, is broiled or boiled. Their 

 vessels being of stone or wood cannot, indeed, be put on the 

 fire ; but heated stones are thrown in until the water becomes 



* Trans. Ethn. Soc., New Ser., vol. ii. p. 311 ; Kane's Arctic Ex- 



vol. i. p. 132. plorations, vol. ii. p. 133. 



t Narrative of a Second Voyage, See, for instance, Kane's Arctic 



p. 251 ; and Appendix, p. 21. See Explorations, vol. ii. p. 14. 

 also Hall's Life with the Esquimaux, 



