An Anthropogeographical Study of the Origin of the Eskimo Culture. 127 
year, lies like a border between the coast and the pack-ice, covering the shal- 
low water. It is this smooth coast-ice which forms a passable road along the 
north coast of Alaska. Every spring this sledge road is, or rather was, visited 
by the West Eskimo who brought European goods to the district round Point 
Manning, where they met the Mackenzie Eskimo. The description which Petrror 
gives of these sledges and this mode of travelling is interesting, because this 
author, who lived as a missionary amongst the Hare Indians, was in advance 
prejudiced against the enemies of the Indians, the heathen Eskimo, for which 
reason he is inclined to see everything from the darkest point of view where 
they are concerned. The sledges he describes as heavy and clumsy contrivances 
“the smallest fault of which is to penetrate deeply into the snow” — not thinking 
of the point that they are not meant for conveyance on the snow but on the 
ice. Every second or third hour, he says, the runners have to be brushed over 
with water and snow to be kept slippery, and for this purpose the ice has to be 
cut through, which is a tedious task. As a rule the sledge is put to with 5—6 
dogs in a transverse row, not in a line as with the Indians. The Eskimo walks 
behind the sledge, leaning on a stick “geignant,” and constantly stopping; he does 
not demand “the speed of Pegasus” from his dogs. At the end he always throws 
himself on the sledge even if it is heavily loaded. After this PETITÔT recounts 
all the articles of dress, chattels and provisions which the Eskimo carries with 
him, and he says that “these Sybarites of the Arctic Sea need a comfort which 
the North Indians easily dispense with.” | 
RicHarpson, from Point Atkinson has already given a summary of the 
various occupations of the Eskimo at the different seasons. About the inhabi- 
tants here he says that they hunt reindeer and water-fowl on the coast plain 
during the summer, that they carry on whale hunting during one month or 
six weeks in the autumn, live with their families in settlements during the dark 
winter months, and in the spring go seawards out on the ice to catch seals. PETITÔT 
says that they fish in the delta from the middle of June till the middle of July. 
The fish (White Salmon and “L’inconnu’’) mixed with blubber is dried or pre- 
served in bags of skin. Together with the fishing, reindeer are hunted and the 
latter hunting is continued until August, when hunting of whales at sea begins. 
The annual economic cycle is somewhat disturbed by the circumstance that 
the periods for hunting reindeer and White Whale partly coincide, which causes 
a division of the population, in that some go to the interior and others to the 
sea coast. Apart from this, however, the Mackenzie Eskimo are, during the 
summer, pronounced inhabitants of the interior, like the last mentioned groups. 
The Eskimo use tents until October, when they move into their winter dwellings. 
Finally, in the spring, the snow house is used, which PETITÔT was the first to 
observe and describe from these districts. As regards the winter-house, which 
will be mentioned later, I will only point out here that this house — several of 
which are built together in permanent, village-like groups — so to say give the 
Eskimo a more assured culture when compared with their southern neighbours. 
It is used during the autumn and a great part of the winter, which accords 
with two facts, viz., that a specially large supply of fish and whale blubber can 
