118 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [KTH.ANX. 18 



other purposes that every house is provided with one or more tubs in 

 which a constantly renewed supply is kept. 



Marmot skins and the skins of inuskrats and birds are rubbed and 

 worked in the hands, after which the women use their teeth to chew 

 the harder parts to render them soft; they are then stretched and 

 dried and a slight wash of oil is applied to render them more pliable. 



The skins of salmon and losh are dressed and used for making bags, 

 boots, mittens, and waterproof garments by the Eskimo of the lower 

 Yukon. The intestines of seals, cleaned and inflated, are dried, and 

 form a kind of translucent parchment, which is cut into strips and 

 sewed to form the waterproof frocks worn by the men when at sea in 

 the kaiaks or when out on land in rainy weather. These garments 

 will shed water for several hours. Coverings for the smoke holes in 

 roofs of houses and kasliims are made of this material, which is used 

 also for covering bedding during transportation or in open camps. 



The Eskimo who live away from the coast, lacking the sea animals, 

 use the intestines of deer and bears for similar purposes. 



HUNTING AND HUNTING IMPLEMENTS 



ANIMAL TRAPS AND SNARES 



Owing to the rapid extermination of reindeer in the neighborhood of 

 the coast of ISTorton sound, the natives depend on hunting the various 

 kinds of seals and on fishing for their main supply of food. For over a 

 hundred miles along that coast, during my residence at St Michael, not 

 a dozen reindeer were killed each year. Twenty years earlier reindeer 

 were extremely numerous throughout the same district, but the intro 

 duction of firearms, after the Americans took possession of the country, 

 resulted in a wasteful slaughter by the natives, who soon succeeded in 

 virtually exterminating these animals in the larger portion of the coast 

 region. 



Before the introduction of firearms the Eskimo had various ingenious 

 modes of capturing and killing deer. They were stalked in the usual 

 manner by hunters, armed with bows and arrows, who approached the 

 herds by creeping from one shelter to another until within bowshot. 

 At other times two hunters went together, and when a herd of reindeer 

 was seen one of the hunters walked immediately behind the other, so 

 that their two bodies were in contact. Then, while keeping step as 

 one man, they walked directly toward the herd. The deer would per 

 mit them to come within a certain distance and then make a wide cir 

 cuit for the purpose of passing behind the advancing hunters; the man 

 in the rear then took advantage of the first hollow or other shelter to 

 throw himself on the ground and lie hidden while his companion con 

 tinued onward, apparently without paying the slightest attention to 

 the game; as a result the deer would circle in behind him, and while 

 watching him were almost certain to run within bow shot of the con- 



