194 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



called aklmhillii (&quot;that which has fifteen,&quot; sc., shots). The whalers are 

 also in the habit of buying up all sorts of cheap or second-hand guns 

 for the Arctic trade, so that many other kinds of guns are also common. 

 Of breech loaders, we saw the Sharpe s rifle, savlgro llii (from a fancied 

 resemblance between the crooked lever of this gun and the crooked 

 knife, savigro u); other patterns of Winchester; the Spencer repeater, 

 kai psualin (from kaipsl, cartridge); the peculiar Sharps- Ilankins, once 

 used in the U. S. Navy, and which was the favorite weapon of the rebel 

 Boers in South Africa; the Peabody-Martiui, made in America for the 

 Turkish Government, marked on the rear sight with Turkish figures, 

 and, exposed with a corpse at the cemetery, one English Snider. The 

 regulation Springfield rifles belonging to the post, which were often 

 loaned to the natives for the purpose of hunting, were called mnkpa- 

 ra llfi (from muJcpara , book, referring to the breech action, which opens 

 like a book). 



They formerly had very few muzzle-loading rifles, but of late years, 

 since the law against trading arms to the natives has been construed 

 to refer solely to breech-loading rifles, the whalers have sold them 

 yiiger rifles, of the old II. S. Army pattern, Enfield rifles, ship s mus 

 kets with flu 1 Tower mark on them, and a sort of bogus rifle made 

 especially for trade, in imitation of the old-fashioned Kentucky rifle, 

 but with grooves extending only a short distance from the muzzle. 

 They of course depend on the ships for their supplies of ammunition, 

 though the Xunataiimiun. sometimes bring a few cartridges smuggled 

 across from Siberia. They naturally are most desirous to procure 

 cartridges for the rim-fire Winchester guns, as these are not intended 

 to be used more than once. They have, however, invented a method of 

 priming these rim-fire shells so that they can be reloaded. A common 

 &quot;G. ]).&quot; percussion cap is neatly fitted into the rim of the shell by 

 cutting the sides into strips which are folded into slits in the shell, 

 a little hole being drilled under the center of the cap to allow the flash 

 to reach the powder. This is a very laborious process, but enables the 

 natives to use a rifle which would otherwise be useless. Such car 

 tridges reloaded with powder and home-made bullets they have many 

 bullet molds and know how to use them are tolerably effective. Great 

 care must be taken to insert the cartridge right side up, so that the 

 cap shall be struck by the firing pin, which interferes with using the 

 gun as a repeater. 



They are very careless with their rifles, allowing them to get rusty, 

 and otherwise misusing them, especially by firing small shot from them 

 in the duck-shooting season. As a rule they are very fair shots with 

 the rifle, but extremely lavish of ammunition when they have a sup 

 ply. The only economy is shown in reloading cartridges and in loading 

 their shotguns, into which they seldom put a sufficient charge. In 

 spite of this some of them shoot very well with the shotgun, though 

 many of them show great stupidity in judging distance, firing light 



