An Anthropogeographical Study of the Origin of the Eskimo Culture. 179 
What, here, we have to investigate is, however, the economic cul- 
ture in the forest regions, and especially so in the Hudson territory. It 
will not be possible to give a description of the annual economic cycle, 
partly on account of the lack of information, and partly because to do 
so one must distinguish between tribes which, for preference, live at 
the good fishing places, and tribes which, for preference, hunt on the 
tundra and at the edges of the forest regions, and tribes which live in 
districts m which all big game has been hunted out, for which reason 
they must maintain life by catching small game (hares). Yet fishing 
plays an important röle for all of them; it is their resource for sustaining 
life when the other, more favourite, means of livelihood fail. 
We must therefore content ourselves with a distinction between the 
occupations in winter and summer, and between the various economic 
apparatuses for use in winter and summer. Firstly as regards the dwel- 
ling, the Indians of the territory deviate from the Prairie Indians and 
from the Eskimo in that they inhabit the same kind of tent all the year 
round, viz., a cupolar tent of the same kind as that also employed by the 
southern Forest Indians, and best known from the Algonquins under 
the name of wigwam. This word is, however, really only the designation 
of the tent covered with birch-bark. The frame work consists of light, 
pliable tree-trunks of 2—3 metres in length, the lower ends of which 
are driven into the ground, while the upper ends are tied together in 
such a way as to form a dome. If the poles are sufficiently long and 
pliable, they can simply be bent into a semicircle, when both ends can 
be driven into the ground. In the summer the tent is only covered with 
bark, but in the winter with snow also. A hole is dug in the snow, about 
one metre deep, or as deep as the firm ground, on which the tent is pit- 
ched!. With the Kutchin-Indians in Alaska the tent has become slightly 
altered in form, in that the ground plan has become somewhat elliptical. 
As regards contrivances for transportation there are two groups, 
one for summer and one for winter. The summer means of conveyance 
is the well known birch-bark canoe, which is so small and light that it 
can be carried over land from stream to stream, and yet so large that 
it can hold two men at least; it is propelled with a single bladed paddle, 
and the authors describe the strength and ease with which the Indians 
handle their boats. The snow shoes and the toboggan are the winter 
means of conveyance. Snow shoes are used by both sexes and are — 
to which even Mason? draws attention — an indispensable contrivance 
when hunting and travelling in the most northern lands. On the other 
hand, in the forest district the toboggan seems to have become a woman’s 
instrument, the use of which was not greatly developed; it was drawn 
by women, who, however, when dogs were at hand, inspanned a couple 
1 SCHOOLCRAFT, р. 19sqq., where there are also references to literature. 
? Mason, р. 381. On various forms of snow shoes see Конг, Vol. I, рр. 154—59. 
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