262 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



stains of lamp soot on her hands, or on anything in the 

 house. The first real Eskimo house in which I lived (a 

 Tuktuyaktok) usually had four seal oil lamps burning, 

 maintaining the temperature of the interior, day and 

 night, steadily between 70 ° and 80 °. We had a wood 

 stove which we used for cooking only, but many Eskimos 

 cook entirely over their lamps. This serves well, but 

 takes a little longer. 



Besides food and fuel, the seal furnishes clothing. The, 

 Eskimos use water boots in summer that are made en- 

 tirely of seal skin, and in winter they use caribou skin 

 boots which in some cases have seal skin soles. Rain 

 coats are made of seal skin and so are mittens intended 

 to be used in handling fishnets or anything that is wet. 

 Coats and trousers for winter may be made of seal skin, 

 but this is seldom done except when caribou are scarce. 



Whalers, traders and explorers have for a century been 

 in contact with the Eskimos in Greenland, even as far 

 north as Smith Sound where the most remote of them 

 live. These people buy canvas and other tents from 

 traders and so do all the Eskimos of Alaska — and, indeed, 

 all the Eskimos in the world except some small groups 

 that are especially inaccessible because they are in the 

 middle of the north coast of North America halfway 

 between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. These small 

 groups still use skin tents and they are of seal skin in 

 districts where seals are more abundant than caribou. 



Lastly, seal si: ins furnish material for boats. . The 

 small seals arc used for the kayaks and the big seals for 

 the umiaks. 



I like to travel with Eskimo companions, but I never 

 liked to feel that I was wholly dependent upon them. 

 Being helpless is never pleasant. To become self-sup- 



