An Anthropogeographical Study of the Origin of the Eskimo Culture. 129 
Point Hope and with the peninsulas at the entrance to Hotham Inlet and Esch- 
scholtz Bay, and this circumstance is of importance, as the Eskimo settlements 
are located on such sandy promontories as afford them easy access to the sea 
and ice. 
Like the coast of Mackenzie and the north coast of Alaska the stretch of 
coast we are here considering is open to the pack-ice, which, during the winter 
is pressed in upon the land, while, for a short period during summer, it retires 
and gives place to a wide extent of open sea, except when the westerly gale 
may occasionally drive the pack-ice onto the land. The bars of sand, however, 
play an important part as regards the pack-ice, the larger cakes of ice grounding 
on them and forming a barrier within which the smooth winter ice is not 
broken, but is permitted to form undisturbed. Murpocu records from Point 
Barrow that the sea is frozen over, or filled with pack-ice, from the middle of 
October to the end of July. There the bar is situated about one kilometre from 
the coast, and the fixed barrier of ice may during the winter attain a breadth 
of several kilometres before the loose, moving pack-ice is reached. The barrier 
does not consist, however, of a compact conglomerate of ice-blocks, but is fre- 
quently interrupted by level fields of winter ice on which the Eskimo carry 
on seal hunting as they do on the ice within the bar. In some years, however, 
under the pressure of violent autumn gales, it may happen that the ice pushes 
across the bar, and the masses of pack-ice are pressed closely together, so that 
the smooth winter ice disappears. When this happens, as was the case for in- 
stance in the winter of 1882—1883, when a part of the winter ice was crushed, 
seal hunting is prevented and a period of want ensues. 
The streams hardly yield any drift-wood and according to Ray’s observa- 
tions the larger pieces of wood which occur all come from the Mackenzie. The 
various species of wood the Yukon distributes along the coast of Norton Sound 
were not to be found north of Bering Strait, and only a very few, old, damaged 
pieces of drift-wood were of Siberian origin. The theory of its coming from 
the Mackenzie is also verified by the fact that drift-wood occurs in greatest 
quantities east of Point Barrow, and decreases in abundance west of this point. 
The Eskimo collect drift-wood very carefully; but sometimes it takes 3—5 years 
to collect enough for a boat or a winter house. 
In contradistinction to the Mackenzie territory, here the interior of the 
country is not occupied by Indian tribes, such not being met with until one is 
south and east of the districts drained by the rivers Colville and Noatak. On 
the other hand, an Eskimo inland-population has developed here which, according 
to Prrrorr, in 1880 consisted of upwards of one-third of the Eskimo popu- 
lation of the district. Sreransson records that during summer they hunt caribou, 
and with hooks and nets carry on fishing in the rivers. But, during winter, pro- 
bably the majority of them make sledge journeys to the coast to hunt seals, _ 
because the settlements are always situated along streams,which during the greater 
part of the year form good sledge roads to the coast, being frozen over as early 
as the first week in September. These sledge roads are not only used by the 
inland Eskimo, but also by the coast inhabitants on their journeys to the interior 
LI, 9 
