208 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



ammunition or oil, and at the end of the season a lucky hunter almost 

 always sends in to borrow extra dogs and hire women and children to 

 help bring in his game. The skins, which at this season are very thick 

 and heavy, suitable only for blankets, heavy stockings, etc., are simply 

 rough dried in the open air, and brought in stacked up on a flat sled. 

 Lieut. Hay met a Xuwiik party returning in 1882 with a pile of these 

 skins that looked like a load of hay. With such heavy loads they, of 

 course, travel very slowly. A few natives, especially when short of 

 ammunition, still use at this season the snow pitfalls mentioned by 

 (Japt. Maguire. 1 



The following is the description of those seen by Lieut. Ray in 1883: 

 A round hole is dug in the drifted snow, along the bank of a stream or 

 lake. This is about 5 feet in diameter and 5 or (i feet deep, and is brought 

 up to within 2 or 3 inches of the surface, where there is only a small 

 hole, t hrough which the snow was removed. This is carefully closed 

 with a thin slab of snow and baited by strewing reindeer moss and 

 bunches of grass over the thin surface, through which the deer breaks 

 as soon as he steps on it. The natives say that they sometimes get two 

 deer at once. 



This method of hunting the reindeer appears uncommon among the 

 Eskimo. I find no mention of it except at Repulse Bay. 2 and among 

 the Netsilliugmiut, where dogs urine is said to be sprinkled on the 

 snow as a bait to attract the deer by its &quot; Salzgehalt.&quot; 3 Lieut. Ray 

 was informed by the natives that the &quot;Nunatafimiun&quot; also captured 

 deer by means of a rawhide noose set across a regular deer path, when 

 they discovered such. The noose is held up and spread by a couple of 

 sticks, and the end staked to the ground with a piece of antler. A sim 

 ilar method was practiced by the natives of Norton Sound. 4 A few 

 parties visit the rivers in summer for the purpose of hunting reindeer, 

 but most of the natives are either off on the trading expeditions pre 

 viously mentioned or else settled in the small camps along the coast, 

 3 or 4 miles apart, whence they occasionally go a short distance inland 

 in search of reindeer. 



The steal. The flesh of the smaller seals forms such a staple of food, and 

 their blubber and skin serve so many important purposes, that their cap 

 ture is one of the most necessary pursuits at Point Barrow, and is car 

 ried on at all seasons of the year and in many different methods. During 

 the season of open water many seals are shot from the umiaks engaged 

 in whaling and walrus hunting or caught in nets set along the shore at 

 Elson Bay. This is also the only season when seals can be captured 

 with the small kaiak darts. 



The principal seal fishery, however, begins with the closing of the sea, 

 usually about the middle of October. When the pack ice comes in 

 there are usually many small open pools, to which the seals resort for 

 air. Most of the able-bodied men in the village are out every day armed 



1 Northwest Passage, Appendix, p. 387. 3 Klntachak. &quot;Als Kskimo,&quot; etc., p. 13L 



2 Rae, Narratives, etc., p. 135. 4 Uall. Alaska, p. 147. 



