An Anthropogeographical Study of the Origin of the Eskimo Culture. 131 
northwards until the end af June; after that time there were no whales in the 
sea until the end of August, when they again began to return, and go south- 
wards from their summer sojourn at the Mackenzie. At the beginning of the 
whaling season, which was divided into two parts, according to the passing 
of the whales to and from eastern waters, every boat-owner tried to secure for 
himself a crew, which kept together as an organized body as long as the hunt 
lasted. Usually it consisted of eight paddlers, besides the harpooner, who oc- 
cupied the bow, and the captain, — as a rule the owner of the boat — who sat 
in the stern and steered. Men were preferred as paddlers, and only in cases of 
necessity were women used for this purpose. When a whale was sighted they 
paddled up as close as possible to it and tried to thrust as many harpoons as 
possible into it in order to exhaust it, so that they might ultimately kill it with 
lances and tow it to the ice-edge or the shore. All those who flensed it were 
entitled to the meat and the blubber; but the whalebone was divided among 
the crews who partook in the chase. 
The White Whale, which is of such importance at the Mackenzie and in 
Norton Sound at the mouth of the Yukon, is only casually hunted at Point 
Barrow, although, during the summer, large shoals are seen to pass along the 
coast on their way to and from the Mackenzie. i 
Reindeer are found in great numbers on the tundra. In the summer the 
herds come down to the coast, and during the winter some of them remain in 
the interior, more hilly regions, where the Inland Eskimo hunt them on snow 
shoes, and by the use of snow pitfalls. During the summer the reindeer are 
hunted in streams and lakes from kayaks, and in fenced-in enclosures. Thus, 
MURDOCH observed between a lagoon and the beach a range of stakes which 
was set to guide the reindeer herds into the water. 
The musk ox is no longer found, but according to STEFANSSON it was not 
exterminated until towards 1860. The Eskimo at Point Barrow mentioned 
their forefathers having hunted the musk ox in the interior, and their bones 
were found in abundance in the kitchen middens. That it is the Eskimo who 
have exterminated the musk ox must be regarded as a certainty. 
Fishing in the sea is carried on especially by women, children and old men; 
but salmon fishing in rivers is more important. The chief implements used in 
fishing are the salmon spear, hooks, and fishing nets. With the exception of the 
darkest period of the winter they are used all the year round in open water and 
at openings made in the ice. 
The most characteristic features of the economic culture at the north-western 
coast of Alaska are (1) the Bowhead Whale hunting, which, in contradistinction 
to the Mackenzie-Eskimo’s single season of hunting in August, is divided into 
two seasons, corresponding to the wandering of the whales to and from the 
Mackenzie, and (2) the large use made of whalebone nets for sealing, which nets 
are dependent on the whale hunting. Lastly, the umiak is the principal form 
of boat, and it has not degenerated into a contrivance to be used by women, 
while the kayak plays only a slight rôle on the sea. Мовросн is of opinion that, 
with the exception of the Smith Sound Eskimo who originally had no know- 
9* 
