74 



CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



homes, and spent their time at Point Barrow or at Point Hope, 

 drinking, dancing, and feasting, never thinking of the morrow 

 or of the long winter to come. 



When the beginning of winter forced the whalers to leave 

 for the south, the Eskimos were scattered over the country, 

 stripped of their furs and their whalebone, with their wives 



ESKIMOS. UXRA AND UJARAJAK. 



and daughters diseased, and their summer hunting spoiled. 

 In consequence, the winters were hard, the people were 

 starving, cold, and racked with disease, while their small 

 supply of flour, sugar, and molasses was brewed into a highly 

 intoxicating drink. 



Though hitherto industrious and hardy, the Eskimos lost 

 their powers as huntsmen ; they could not stand the hardships 

 of the winter trail, and moved together in larger settlements, to 

 live upon those who had something to eat. Instead of spread- 

 ing along the coast in places where the hunting and trapping were 

 good, with no more people living at one place than the country 

 could comfortably support, they were now huddled together in 



