32 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



off the shore. The whale is valued not only for its flesh and 

 blubber, but for a variety of useful purposes : threads of " whale- 

 bone " are used for making nets, its jaws serve as runners for 

 sledges, and, when wood is scarce, its ribs are used for rafters 

 or tent-poles. Fishing is also carried on in the inland waters, 

 chiefly by children, women, and old men : the fish are taken 

 by hooks, nets, and barbed spears or harpoons. In dangerous 

 places, such as rapids or whirlpools, the sport requires great 

 skill and nerve, and is undertaken by able-bodied hunters. 

 Birds are shot with a fowling spear, or captured by a kind of 

 miniature bolas ; their eggs are collected by the children. 



In autumn (August and September), when the reindeer are 

 on the homeward road, the best hunting of the year begins, and 

 a heavy tax is levied on these animals, to provide not only for 

 present eating, but also a sufficient store for the winter season. 

 Salmon fishing is also actively pursued, and large quantities of 

 these fish are preserved for future use. 



At the beginning of winter (October) the Eskimo go into 

 their winter house, a solidly constructed dwelling capable of 

 containing several families. It is sometimes built of stones, 

 sometimes of timber, and in each case thickly covered over with 

 a layer of earth. The wooden house is ingeniously designed, 

 with a skeleton of upright pillars and transverse balks, to 

 which the boards forming the walls and roof are affixed. The 

 timber is furnished by driftwood found on the coast : in some 

 localities this driftwood is so scarce that it may take three or 

 even five years to collect as much as will build a single house 

 or provide the framework of a boat. It is said that these winter 

 houses are the best that could be devised, under the circum- 

 stances, to meet the rigours of an arctic climate. They are 

 entered by a long covered passage, and warmed by blubber 

 lamps (these are simple variously shaped bowls of soapstone, 

 sandstone, or other rock, in which blubber, usually obtained 

 from the seal, is burnt). The houses are so proof against cold 

 that, with these lamps, a temperature of 20 C. is maintained. 

 Speaking of the Greenland houses, which are built of stone, 

 Hans Egede remarks : " I cannot forbear taking Notice, that 

 though in one of these Houses there be ten or twenty Train- 

 Lamps, one does not perceive the Steam or Smoak thereof to 

 fill these small Cottages : The Reason, I imagine, is the Care 

 they take in trimming those Lamps — viz. they take dry Moss, 



