42 NATURAL HISTOKY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



tliey use finely braided deer sinews for the snares, instead of seal- skin, 

 Tliey take a good manj- eiders on their nests in this manner. 



When traveling over the frozen wastes in winter they nse snow-shoes. 

 These are half-moou-shaped, of whalebone, with seal-skin thongs tightly 

 drawn across. They are about sixteen inches long. Another pattern 

 is merely a frame of wood, about the same length, and eight or ten 

 inches wide, with seal-skin thongs for the foot to rest on. As their dogs' 

 feet often get very sore while traveling on crusty snow, they make them 

 little moccasins of seal-skin to protect the feet. 



Nearly all the Eskimo become snow-blind in spring, though they use 

 eye-blinkers of wood. These are only a piece of wood fitting closely 

 over the eyes, and having a horizontal slit about one-sixteenth of an 

 inch wide ; it affords a good deal of protection to the eyes, but they are 

 generally not i)ut on till the condition of their eyes forbids them going 

 without. Some eye-blinkers of bone were found in a grave; they were 

 apparently very old, and of a diliereut i^attern, but so much decayed as 

 not to admit of handling. 



All the Cumberland Eskimo of the present day have sledges of wood. 

 This has either been bartered from the whalemen or secured from the 

 wrecks of shijjs. There are, nevertheless, some remains occasionally 

 found of sledges that were comi)osed entirelj^ of bone, Avhales' jaw-bone 

 apparently. They were made in many pieces, and ingeniously lashed 

 together. All their sledges of the present day are shod with bone, and 

 when about to undertake a journey they pour warmed blood upon the 

 under surface of the bone shoeing; some use water, but this does not 

 last nearly so long as blood, and is more apt to chip off. This coatiug 

 makes a very smooth surface, and also protects the runners. All their 

 sledges have a sort of upright on the back end. This is nothing more 

 than a deer's head, with the antlers attached, the antlers being lashed 

 on the top edge of either runner. This serves for a variety of purposes^ 

 and is very handy indeed. 



The kyack of the Cumberland Inuit does not seem to have imdergone 

 any change in pattern since the w^hites came among them. Still, these 

 craft are extremely rude and bulky, compared with the Greenlanders' 

 kynck ; neither do they compare with the Greenlanders in expertness in 

 its use. These kyacks are mostly so large that they would readily carry 

 two persons, and quite heavy. They do not carry so much gear upon 

 their kyacks as the Greenlanders; the seal spear, walrus spear, and bird 

 speni', with their respective lines, are about all, unless they are after some 



