CEUISB OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 33 



I do not wish to be thought frivolous in my notions regarding the noble science of philology ; 

 but when one considers the changes that language is constantly undergoing, the inability of the 

 human voice to articulate more than twenty distinct sounds, and the wonderful amount of ingen- 

 ious learning that has been wasted by philologists on trifling subjects, one is disposed to associate 

 many of their deductions with the savage picture writing on Dighton Rock, the Cardiff Giant, and 

 the old wind-mill at Newport. 



ESKIMO DIETETICS. 



Attempts to trace or discover the origin of races through supposed philological analogies do 

 not possess the advantage of certainty afforded by the study of the means by which individuals of 

 the race supply the continuous demands of the body with the nutriment necessary to maintain life 

 and health. 



Everybody has heard of the seal, bear, walrus, and whale in connection with Eskimo dietetics, 

 and doubtless the stomachs of most persons would levolt at the idea of eating these animals, the 

 taste for which, by the way, is merely a matter of early education or individual preference, for 

 there is no good reason why they should not be just as palatable to the northern appetite as pig, 

 sheep, and beef are to the inhabitants of temperate latitudes. As food they renew the nitrogenous 

 tissues, reconstruct the parts, and restore the functions of the Eskimo frame, prolong his existence, 

 and produce the same animal contentment and joy as the more civilized viands of the white man's 

 table. There are more palatable things than bear or eider-duck, yet I know many persons to 

 whom snails, olive oil, a,Tn\ pate defois gras are more repugnant. A tray full of hot seal entrails, 

 a bowl of coagulated blood, and putrid fish are not very inviting or lickerish to ordinary mortals, 

 yet they have their analogue in the dish of some farmers who eat a preparation of pig's bowels 

 known as "chitterlings," and in the blood-puddings and Limburger cheese of the Germans. 

 Blubber-oil and whale are not very dainty dishes, yet consider how many families subsist on half- 

 baked saleratus biscuits, salted pork, and oleomargarine. 



On the mess table of the fur company's establishment at Saint Paul Island, seal meat is a 

 daily article of consumption, and from personal experience I can testify as to its palatability, 

 although it reminded one of indifferent beef rather overdone. Hair seal and bear steaks were ou 

 different occasions tried at the mess on board the Corwin, but everybody voted eider-duck and 

 reindeer the preference. It is not so very long since that whale was a favorite article of diet in 

 England and Holland, and Arctic whalemen still, to my personal knowledge, use the freshly tried 

 oil in cooking ; for instance, in frying cakes, for which they say it answers the purpose as well as 

 the finest lard, while others breakfast on whale and potatoes prepared after the manner of codfish 

 balls. The whale I have tasted is lather insipid eating, yet it appears to be highly nutri- 

 tious, judging from the well-nourished look of natives who have lived on it, and the air of greasy 

 abundance and happy contentment that pervades an Eskimo village just after the capture of a 

 whale. Being ashore one day with our pilot, we met a native woman whom he recognized as a 

 former acquaintance, and on remarking to her that she had picked up in flesh since he last saw 

 her, she rt^plied that she had been living on whale all the winter, which explained her plumpness. 



It must not be supposed, however, that the whale, seal, and walrus constitute the entire food 

 supply of |he Arctic. There is scarcely any more toothsome delicacy than reindeer, the tongue of 

 which is very dainty and succulent. There is one peculiarity about its flesh — in order to have it 

 in perfection it must be eaten very soon after being killed ; the sooner the better, for it deteriorates 

 in flavor the longer it is kei)t. Indeed, the Eskimo do not wait for the animal heat to leave the 

 carcass, as they eat the brains and paunch hot and smoking. 



While our gastronomic enthusiasm did not extend this far, we dined occasionally on fresh 

 trout from a Siberian mountain lake, young wild ducks as fat as squabs, and reindeer, any of 

 which delicacies could not be had in the same perfection at Delmonico's or any similar establish- 

 ment in New York for love or money. There is scarcely any better eating in the way of fish than 

 coregoHus — a new species discovered at Point Barrow by the Corwin — and certainly no more dainty 

 game exists than the young wild geese and ptarmigan to be found in countless numbers in 

 Hotham Inlet. At the latter place, doubtless the warmest inside the Straits, are found quantities 

 of cranberries about the size of a pea, which not only make a delicious accessory to roasted goose, 

 H. Ex. 105 5 



