MUBDOCU.] FOOD. 6 1 



great deal of iron pyrites. White gypsum, used for nibbing the flesh 

 side of deerskins, is obtained on the seashore at a place called Tu tye, 

 &quot;one sleep&quot; east from Point Barrow. 



Bituminous coal, alu a, is well known, though not used for fuel. 

 Many small fragments, which come perhaps from the vein at Cape Beau 

 fort, 1 are picked up on the beach. Shaly, very bituminous coal, broken 

 into small square fragments, is rather abundant on the bars of Kuln- 

 grua, whence specimens were brought by Capt. Ilerendeeu. A native 

 of Wainwright Inlet gave us to understand that coal existed in a regu 

 lar vein near that place, and told a story of a burning hill in that 

 region. This may be a coal bed on fire, or possibly &quot; smoking cliffs,&quot; like 

 those seen by the Inrestu/atof in Franklin Bay. 2 We also heard a story 

 of a lake of tar or bitumen, adnguu, said to be situated on an island a 

 day s sail east of the point. Blacklead, ml iiun, and red ocher are 

 abundant and used as pigments, but we did not learn where they were 

 obtained. Pieces of amber are sometimes found on the beach and are 

 carried as amulets or (rarely) made into beads. Amber is called aunre, 

 a word that in other Eskimo dialects, and probably in this also, means 

 &quot;a live coal.&quot; Its application to a lump of amber is quite a striking 

 figure of speech. 



CULTURE. 



MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE. 

 POOD. 



Substances used for food. The food of these people consists almost en 

 tirely of animal substances. The staple article of food is the flesh of 

 the r(High_seal, of which they obtain more than of any other meat. Next 

 in importance is the venison of the reindeer, though this is looked upon 

 as a kind of dainty. 3 Many well developed foetal reindeer are brought 

 home from the spring deer hunt and are said to be excellent eating, 

 though we never saw them eaten. They also eat the flesh of the other 

 three species of seal, the wajrus, the polarjsear, the &quot;bowhead&quot; whale, 

 the white whale, and all the larger kinds of birds, geese, ducks, gulls, 

 and grouse. All the different kinds of fish appear to be eaten, with the 

 possible exception of the two species of Lycodes (only a few of these 

 were caught, and all were purchased for our collection) and very little 

 of a fish is wasted except the hardest parts. Walrus hide is sometimes 

 cooked and eaten in times of scarcity. Mollnsks of any kind are rarely 

 eaten, as it is difficult to procure them. After a heavy gale in the 

 autumn of 1881, when the beach was covered with marine animals, mostly 

 lamellibrauch mollusks with their shells and softer parts broken off by 



1 Hooper found coal oil the beach at Nuwtik in 1849, showing that this coal has not necessarily been 

 thrown over from ships. Tents of the Tnski, p. 221. 

 Discovery of the XorthwenT Passage, p. 100. 

 The Eskimo of Iglulik prefer venison to any kind of meat.&quot; Parry, 2d Voyage, p. fill). 



