Stupart's Bay Station. 91 



the coast and in the interior that one cannot judge in the least 

 where he is going by the appearance of the country. The sun is 

 seldom in sight, the sky being for the most part overcast, so that he 

 can scarcely be depended upon as a director. Under these circum- 

 stances, the " American-man " is indispensable. It is but little 

 trouble to build one, as loose rocks of all sizes are to be had every- 

 where. 



It was by such means as this that we marked our route inland 

 in the excursions we made while at Stupart's Bay. Here and there 

 in the journeys we would chance upon a native grave. Some of 

 •them were marked only by a few well bleached bones, and the har- 

 poons, knives, spears, etc., which the unfortunates used in their life- 

 time. These things are always placed b} T the side of an Eskimo's grave, 

 and it is held to be such a curse upon any one who is evil-minded 

 enough to remove them, that they are generally left to rot and rust 

 long after the mortal remains have disappeared altogether. In the 

 case of a female, her cutting-knife, needle-case, etc., and clothing are 

 placed under the rocks with her body. 



The three small villages that we visited, all within seven or 

 eight miles of our anchorage, contained a population aggregating 

 less than seventy-five souls. They are all a dirty, wretched set, 

 improvident, and therefore alternating between extreme poverty 

 and plenty, such as it is, according as the hunt proves successful or 

 unprofitable. They live in tents of walrus or seal skins in summer, 

 and in snow or cave huts in the winter. They generally eat every- 

 thing raw, and their food consists of the flesh of seals, walrus, por- 

 poise, reindeer, sea-trout, salmon, and fowl, such as geese, ducks, 

 ptarmigan, etc. They sometimes cook the fowl, and frequently the 

 flesh of the deer. This is done generally in stone kettles, heated 

 over stone lamps : a sort of trough hewn from a piece of rock. The 

 fuel is oil, of course, of which they generally have plenty, the wick 

 being lichen moss such as the deer feed upon. With this arrange- 

 ment they can cook with ease, but their preference for raw flesh 

 generally dispenses with that trouble. 



The interior of these tents was very much the same as those 

 that we had met with elsewhere. They were filthy beyond 



