An Anthropogeographical Study of the Origin of the Eskimo Culture. 43 
by the unusually large number of implements which are in use. It 
has been described so often, however, and is so well-known, that here 
only the principal forms of implements, articles for use, dwelling-houses, 
and lastly a few specially important hunting methods will be called 
to mind. Some other hunting methods of importance will be men- 
tioned and described in the following chapters. 
These are the kayak, umiak (woman’s boat), harpoon, and bird- 
dart with throwing board, the three-pronged salmon-spear, the com- 
pound bow, strengthened by a backing of sinew, the dog sledge, the 
snow shoe, the winter house and snow house with the lamps for burning 
blubber oil, and the platform, tbe summer tent, and lastly the skin- 
garments. The nearer description of these various contrivances as 
adapted to one another must here be taken as known. 
Among the various methods of hunting, the hunting of seals 
from a kayak is well known, while the Maupok method has been less 
noticed. The word “Maupok” signifies “he waits” and refers to the 
fact that the hunter stations himself at the hole which the seal keeps 
open in the ice during winter, and waits until the seal comes up to 
blow. The hunter stands motionless, or he sits upon a small three- 
legged stool, sometimes for hours, before the seal comes up to the 
breathing hole, when he instantly thrusts the harpoon into the animal, 
which disappears into the water as quick as lightening, pulling off 
the harpoon head and disengaging the detachable foreshaft. It soon 
gets exhausted, however, so that it can be hauled up and killed; the 
hole is then widened and the prey drawn up. 
This method of hunting is practised throughout the winter. In 
the spring, on the other hand, the seal creeps up onto the ice to 
sun itself and is hunted as follows: the hunter lies down and, imit- 
ating the movements of a seal, approaches his prey. If he succeeds 
in getting within a convenient distance of the seal, he rushes up to 
it and thrusts the harpoon into it. The point is to be quick, as the 
seal never goes far from its hole in the ice, but lies ready to plunge 
into the water. This method of hunting is called the ““Utok method” 
from the Greenland expression for a seal that has come up upon 
the ice to sun itself. Besides these, there are other methods of 
hunting which are connected with ice, and are of ethnographical 
importance. For the present, I shall only call to mind the hunting 
at cracks in the ice, which is carried on during the latter part of 
spring and early summer, when the ice begins to break up. 
It has been said that scarcely anywhere else on earth does there 
exist a people living in groups scattered over so extensive an area 
which at the same time shows such remarkable homogeneity both 
in culture and language as the Eskimo do, and there can be no doubt 
as to the correctness of this. 
As regards culture, in particular, the congruity has been obvious 
