DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 109 



In fishing through the ice a hook is used made from ivory or a piece 

 of steel, when such can be had, and they are seldom baited, the fish 

 being gigged. In other words, they have a number of small colored 

 pieces of bone, usually red, strung along the line just above the hook, 

 which attracts the fish, and by continually raising and lowering the 

 line it is caught. The hook used by the Eskimo has no flange like 

 those used by the whites, but so dexterous are they in hauling tbe fish 

 from the water that one seldom drops off. 



The fish-line is made of strips of whalebone, each about 8 inches in 

 length, the ends being tied together with the same material, and they 

 are generally 20 or 30 feet long. The rod is about 2 feet long, and in 

 fishing is held in the right hand, while the left holds a stick of about 

 the same length, which is thrust under the line as it is being hauled 

 out, the same motion being made with the rod, and when the fish has 

 reached the surface the line lies in loops on the ice. 



The fish caught in winter are all small, seldom measuring more than 

 8 inches long, and it will take 2 persons several hours, with good suc- 

 cess, to catch enough to supply an ordinary family with food for a single 

 day. 



In spearing fish an ivory-pointed spear is used with little sharp notches 

 cut on both sides. This is fastened to a slender pole 10 or .12 feet long. 

 The Eskimo lies flat on the ice, the spear held in his right hand, the 

 head within a foot or so of the bottom, and the hood of his artiger drawn 

 closely around the hole. When in this position the minutest particle 

 of sand is seen at the bottom, the water being so transparent and the 

 ice serving as an illuminator. As the fish glides quietly along, the 

 spear is quickly thrust down, and it is generally securely impaled on 

 the point of the spear. 



One can not realize the tediousness of fishing either with a hook or 

 spear until he has watched these people, who frequently lie in one posi- 

 tion an hour or two before a single fish is caught or even seen. The 

 Eskimo believe a hole can be fished dry, for they occasionally change 

 their locations and build another barricade, which they continue to 

 occupy until the fish are all caught or migrate to another locality. 



Salmon are only caught with the seine, and in some localities are 

 quite numerous. They weigh from 6 to 10 pounds, and the onlyprocess 

 of curing them practiced by the Eskimo in this section is that of dry- 

 ing. Among the natives of the interior they constitute their principal 

 food and serve as an article of traffic with the coast people, exchanging 

 them for fish and oil. 



Seals are sometimes caught in seines. Both late in the fall and 

 after the ice thaws out in the spring they are set in shallow localities, 

 and occasionally with good results. It is not a common w T ay of hunt- 

 ing them, however, and the number caught in this manner is compara- 

 tively small. 



The only difference in the style of clothing worn by the men and 



