68 THENORTHPOLE 



Time is, of course, of small value to the Eskimo, 

 so far as he is himself personally concerned, yet after 

 the Eskimo has been trained to the ways of the white 

 man he seems to absorb an excellent notion of the value 

 of punctuality and will carry out orders with a sur- 

 prising degree of promptness and despatch. 



The strength and capacity for enduring hardships 

 exhibited by this people is extraordinary and is not, I 

 believe, exceeded by that shown by any other aborig- 

 inal race now in existence. It is true that the average 

 size of the Eskimo is, judged by our own standards, 

 small; but I could give the names of several of them 

 who stand five feet ten inches and weigh 185 pounds. 

 The popular idea that they are clumsily fashioned is 

 not correct. That notion is merely another case of judg- 

 ing a man by the clothes he wears, and an Eskimo's 

 garments are not precisely what we should call of 

 fashionable cut. 



To my mind, the skin canoe of these Northern abo- 

 rigines is, with its hunting implements, one of the most 

 complete and ingenious manifestations of intelligence 

 to be found in any aboriginal tribe. Over a light frame- 

 work, an almost infinite number of small pieces of 

 wood deftly lashed together with sealskin thongs, is 

 stretched the tanned skin of seals, the seams being 

 neatly sewed by the women, and then rendered water- 

 tight by an application of seal oil and soot from the 

 native lamps. The result is a craft of great buoyancy, 

 some grace, and especial fitness and effectiveness for 

 the purposes for which it is intended, that is, to enable 

 the hunter to creep softly and noiselessly upon seal, 

 walrus, or white whale. This canoe, while varying 



