289 



This appears just as clearly also in their methods of 

 hunting and journeying at the different seasons of the year. It 

 is only possible naturally to sketch and describe the main fea- 

 tures of these, as there can be some differences from the 

 ordinary routine depending both on geographical conditions as 

 well as on personal conditions and pleasure. 



The Eskimos are most bound to a definite spot during the 

 summer or more correctly in the months of July, August and 

 September, as they have open water then and their complete 

 lack of large boats for journeys (umiaks) prevents moving. The 

 earlier mentioned, American Eskimos, who immigrated to these 

 parts in the sixties, certainly knew the travelling or women's 

 boat, and they seem also exceptionally to have used it. Thus 

 Knud Rasmussen ^ narrates that the Polar Eskimos tell of a 

 group of men, who were isolated during a bad hunting period 

 on Cape Melville in Melville Bay, and that, when the summe.r 

 came, they made a women's boat from their tent-skins and 

 rowed away to better himting places. However this report may 

 be judged from a purely historical standpoint, it bears witness 

 that the Eskimos have not been wholly unacquainted with the 

 idea of large skin-boats. At the present time, when the Eski- 

 mos have had access to wood for some years , it is probably 

 and mostly for practical reasons that they do not build such 

 boats. A umiak, namely, cannot be taken on the sledge, so 

 that in order to have any advantage from it, a family must end 

 its ice and winter life exactly at the same place where , 9 

 months previously when the sea became frozen over, it began; 

 such a women's boat is however not so useful during the short 

 summer life, that the Polar Eskimos would willingly bind them- 

 selves in such a way. We find therefore that the few boats, 

 which the Eskimos have in the course of time come into pos- 

 session of from expeditions, have been permitted to lie without 

 being put to any appreciable use for the tribe. ^"Г-тг- -^ 



1 1. c, p. 28 



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