472 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 30 



bed. Therefore, the skis in the forest region are made of thin wooden 

 planks, broad enough not to sink through the snow. Skis of this 

 type are not good for the tundra. The hardened, uneven snow 

 surface of the tundra requires a special shape of ski plaited of cord, 

 the so-called " raven claws." The natives say that skis of this shape 

 leave on the snow traces like the tracks of raven claws, but more 

 probably this name is connected with some variation of the raven 

 mj^h so important in the folk lore of the Bering region. 



5. Zoological conditions of the north are as follows : Since the 

 natural resources of the north from the human point of view are 

 mostly of zoological character and the people live on an animal diet, 

 we must discuss, one after another, first, sea game, mammals, and 

 fishes; second, land animals, wild and domesticated; and third, birds. 



The northern zone is almost wholly unfit for agriculture, even 

 for the gardening and raising of vegetables. The principal form 

 of the culture is either the hunting of wild animals or the raising 

 of domesticated ones. Both forms of economics are based on faunal 

 considerations. One deals with Avild animals and the other with 

 domesticated. The difference from a general point of view is not 

 very important, and the raising of animals is only a result and 

 development of hunting of them. The breeding and tlie growth of 

 animal life in the north, as elsewhere, is based first and last on 

 the abundance of food. The northern zone is not very rich in the 

 number and variety of species, but all the richer in the number of 

 individuals of the same species and in the celerity of breeding and 

 increasing of animal life. The abundance of animal life in the 

 north in some cases is almost beyond imagination, surpassing tlie 

 chances of the more southern latitudes. From the economic point 

 of view the animal supplies of the north are quite sufficient not 

 only for the support of its inhabitants but also for export to southern 

 i-egions more densely populated than the north. 



What is the reason for the faunal abundance of the north? As 

 yet we hardly know any answer to that question. In regard to the 

 sea fauna, it is known that the Arctic seas abound with plankton, 

 which forms the base and the staple food for all fishes not strictly 

 carnivorous. The studies of Russian scientists in the White Sea 

 and in the nearest part of the Arctic Ocean try to establish that 

 part of the northern sea is far better supplied with plankton than 

 the seas of more southern latitudes. In connection with this, fish 

 are more abundant in the north. Moreover, innumerable sorts 

 of fishes living in temperate and warm zones come over to the north 

 and enter northern rivers in order to spawn and propagate. As far 

 as I know, the great rivers of the South, the Amazon, Rio de la 

 Plata, and Mississippi, having their own fish population, have not 

 such masses of wandering fish entering their mouths from the ocean. 



