132 H. P. STEENSBY. 
ledge of it, it was only the Siberian Eskimo who made slighter use of this contri- 
vance than did the Point Barrow Eskimo. But here Murpocx is thinking 
exclusively of its use on the sea. That kayaks must be of some importance to 
these Eskimo is evident from his further remark that, so to speak, every grown- 
up man owns and can handle a kayak. According to Мовросн it is but slightly 
employed on the sea, and then only in the neighbourhood of the settlement. 
But it. is of greater importance inland, at the hunting of the reindeer, which 
are pursued for preference while swimming in a river or in a lake. 
Consequently, long annual journeys are not made by the Coast Eskimo, 
as they can procure their livelihood all the year round in the neigh- 
bourhood of the settlement. In the summer the tents are frequently pitched 
in the same place as the winter settlement occupies. The latter consists, as a 
rule, of a number of dome-shaped earth-houses grouped around one or two larger 
houses used as Kashims. As, in the winter and spring, they do not move out 
on the ice during the seal hunt, they continue to live in the winter houses, and 
snow houses are built only exceptionally, when the necessities of travelling 
demand them. It appears that they do not know, or have forgotten, how to finish 
off the arch at the top, as they lay poles across the opening and cover it with 
a roof of skins. 
The Asiatic Eskimo :. 
As regards the form, height and structure of the coast the north-east end 
of the Asiatic continent corresponds fairly exactly with the north-west coast 
of Alaska. On the other hand the hydrographic conditions on the western and 
eastern side of Bering Strait are very different, because the current at the Ameri- 
can coast 1s northerly, while at the Asiatic coast it is southerly. In connection 
herewith the last mentioned is to a greater extent blocked by drift-ice and ice- 
masses frozen together than is the Alaskan side, and furthermore the climate to the 
west is the most Arctic. South of East Cape, where the coast line withdraws 
in a south-westerly direction, it seems as if a surface of winter ice forms along 
the land and in the indentations. On an American map? of the edge of the shore 
ice in Bering Strait no coast ice is indicated on the American side, whereas 
at the above mentioned place on the Asiatic side large ice-surfaces occur, along 
the outer edge of which the pack-ice is stated to pass. South of Indian Point, 
or along the real Pacific Coast of Asia, smooth ice does not generally form, on 
account, amongst other things, of the terrific winter gales and the tidal currents. 
From an ethnographical point of view the district is of much interest. 
The fauna offers good conditions for the Eskimo culture, inasmuch as there 
are both seals and whales in considerable quantities. Of the kinds of seal are 
first and foremost the Ringed Seal, and the Bearded Seal, and there are also 
1 Bocoraz and further AtipricH; Dati; GERLAND; Hooper; LÜTKE; 
JOCHELSON; NORDENSKJÖLD; NORDQUIST; WRANGELL. (Cf. STEENSBY I, 
pp. 117—121. 
? SMITHSONIAN MIscELLANEOUS, Vol. 25. Washington, 1883. 
