CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 103 



In May, 1881, we took on board at Saint Lawrence Island two families of natives for passage 

 t<> the Siberian coast. Their outfit, which probably embraced all their earthly possessions, con- 

 sisted of a small quantity of dried seal meat, a couple of old rusty guns, a few camp utensils, ami 

 a bag containing some extra garments. A bundle of short poles, with a roll of walrus hide, some 

 oars and paddles completed the outfit. The party was lauded at Marcus Bay. Some weeks later, 

 stopping again at Saint Lawrence Island, this same party came alongside, having just returned 

 from the Siberian coast in an oomiac constructed of the poles and walrus hide which they had 

 taken along with them. The distance from the coast of Siberia to Saint Lawrence Island is about 

 50 miles. At that season of the year the sea was filled with large fields of drift-ice, and subject to 

 dense fogs, snow-storms, &c, yet this party of ten persons had safely crossed in their frail boat, 

 and this without the aid of a compass or any guide except native instinct. When asked if they 

 were not afraid to venture so far to sea in such a boat, they laughed heartily and said " Pow," 

 (no) with a manner that left no doubt of their entire confidence in the seaworthiness of the oomiac. 



The winter houses, called tupecs, are built half beneath the ground and roofed over with 

 wood or whale's bones covered with earth. They are very damp and can only be occupied when 

 the ground is frozen. The entrance is made through an underground passage from a sort of 

 stockade, 15 or 20 feet away. Walrus hide, rendered translucent by drying and oiling, sometimes 

 serves for windows, and is placed directly in the top of the house, but generally the lamp furnishes 

 light and heat. The situation of the settlements depends upon several things, such as a good 

 landing-place for their boats, or a protection from drifting snow, the latter being the more 

 important. No more cheerless place can be imagined than some of the village sites selected by 

 these curious people. At Cape Lisburne the settlement is on the north side of the cape, exposed 

 to the full force of the northerly gales, the land to the south rising abruptly for 1,000 or 1,200 

 feet, completely shutting out the sun except for the short time that it does not sink below the 

 horizon at midnight. Then it can be seen during the night only when the sun is north of the 

 prime vertical. One of the most remarkable places for the location of a settlement, and one 

 which best illustrates their utter disregard for comfort in the selection, is on the side of King's 

 Island. This island, which lies at the southern entrance to Bering Strait, is small and high and 

 surrounded by steep rocky cliffs. The village is on the south side of the island, ou an extremely 

 rugged slope, and reaching more than 150 feet above the sea. The winter houses are excavations 

 in the rock. The summer houses are made of walrus hide .stretched ou poles, which are secured 

 to the almost perpendicular cliffs by lashings and guys of walrus hide. The inhabitants of King's 

 Island are very expert walrus hunters, and kill large numbers as-they pass the island in the 

 spring on their way into the Arctic Ocean. The walrus crawl out on the ice and sleep, and in 

 this way are carried through the straits by the current. The natives easily approach them with 

 the kyack, and dispatch them with their spears, without danger, while upon the ice, but to 

 attempt to kill them in the water in their frail kyacks is both difficult and dangerous. As the 

 season when they can be reached ou the ice is short the natives, unlike those at Saint Lawremr 

 Island, provide for the future by laying in a stock of meat, a cave in the rock near the village 

 being used as a store-house. Meat hung in this cave remains fresh, winter or summer, without 

 any preparation whatever. 



The state of filth in which the Innuits live is beyond description, and their appearance when 

 they first emerge from their houses after a long winter of hibernating in the smoke, filth, and 

 vermin is disgusting in the extreme, their skin being fairly covered with scales of dirt, their eyes 

 sore, and their hair and clothes alive with vermin. They never wash, but late in the season much 

 of the filth wears off. The mothers wash the babies by licking them with the tongue, as a cat 

 does its kittens. They also eat the vermin found on the hair and clothing. Their cooking 

 utensils consist of a lamp and a camp-kettle of iron. When the latter is not obtainable (hey 

 make a very good substitute of stone, which is suspended over the lamp by thongs of skin or 

 straw. The lamp is simply a stone vessel capable of holdiug a small quantity of oil, perhaps a 

 gill, and into which a piece of moss is placed and lighted. Sometimes the supply of oil is kept 

 up by suspending a piece of blubber over the lamp. The heat causes the blubber to melt and 

 drop into the lamp. The lamp furnishes light, fuel for cooking food, heating the houses, and 

 drying clothes. Each family has a separate lamp, although several may occupy the saute room. 



