100 REPORT ON THE INTRODUCTION OF 



prepare their harpoons and spears for walrus arid seal hunting in the 

 spring, make aud repair their sleds, and engage in a thousand and one 

 things that an Eskimo has to do to supply himself and family with the 

 necessaries of life. They expend a great deal of labor in the manufac- 

 ture of nearly every article they use. If it is something that has joints, 

 the parts are firmly lashed together with seal thong, and when finished 

 the joint is the last place that would give way. 



The net and seine made by the Eskimo are articles that display a 

 wonderful amount of mechanical skill, and represent a great many 

 hours of x>atient labor. 



The seine is used for catching salmon, and is made 30 or 40 fathoms 

 long by 1 or 2 wide. Like everything else used by the Eskimo in 

 which string or rope is used, it is made of sealskin, and the fine lines 

 are cut many fathoms long, as uniform in width as if it were the prod- 

 uct of the best machinery. 



The Eskimo have but one standard measure, and that is the fathom. 

 It means as much as a man can span by holding his arms out at right 

 angles to his body, and this measures about feet. When buying 

 calico or drilling of the whites, or measuring the dimensions of a boat 

 or log, or for any other purpose, it is always so many fathoms, or 

 " e sung nuk," as it is called by them. 



The Eskimo woman has very little taste for fancy work, and, with 

 two or three exceptions, confine their work to the making of such arti- 

 cles as are needed for their comfort. They often embellish their arti- 

 gas with different colored fur, and trim them in a manner that makes 

 them very pretty. Sometimes they make boots that are adorned with 

 trimming, but they usually confine themselves to plain work, and it is 

 always substantial. 



If a woman wants to make a present, the only thing that suggests 

 itself to her, and in fact the only thing she ever gives to a sweetheart, 

 is a tobacco pouch, or " tee rum i ute" as it is called. These they make 

 in various styles, and decorate them with beads or some fancy-colored 

 fur, such as the ermine, either in its delicate yellow tinge of summer or 

 the pure white it assumes in winter. 



The men are more given to fancy work, and many of their tools and 

 instruments are decorated with ivory. The heads of seal, cut from 

 ivory, are often lashed to their harpoons or strung on the seal thongs 

 stretched over their canoes, and figures of walrus, dogs, wolves, and in 

 fact almost every animal and fish that are found there, are cut on ivory 

 pipes, which some of them make very neatly. Some of the workers on 

 ivory engrave pictures of these animals with an ordinary knife and will 

 decorate a walrus tusk with a ship, which is a good imitation of one of 

 the whaling vessels they have seen. After they have engraved the 

 picture they rub wood ashes mixed with a little oil into the engraving, 

 which leaves a black setting, thus showing the work in the ivory to 

 good advantage. 



