ESKIMO SETTLEMENTS AND SOURCES OF FOOD SUPPLY. 235 



on account of a few mineral substances procured in its neighbour- 

 hood, and held in esteem by the natives of the coast. It also flows 

 westward, and then bends southward to join Hotham Inlet near, its 

 eastern end. The fourth is the Si-la-wik, which, having a more 

 southerly origin, follows a more direct westerly course, and empties 

 itself into a large lake, communicating with the eastern extreme of 

 the same inlet near the mouth of the K6-wak. All these rivers 

 have been identified by different officers from the Plover having 

 visited their embouchures, and those falling into Hotham Inlet were 

 found bordered with large pine trees. The natives add, that trees 

 also grow on the banks of the rivers in some parts of the interior. 

 The other rivers along the north and north-west coast are small and 

 hardly known, except to persons who have visited them ; and the 

 Buckland and others to the southward are but little spoken of by the 

 people generally, although aware of their existence. 



The largest settlements are at Point Barrow, Cape Smyth, Point 

 Hope, and Cape Prince of Wales, which are never altogether deserted 

 in the summer; but besides these, there are numerous points along 

 the coast, as at Wainwright Inlet, Icy Cape, the shores of Kotzebue 

 Sound, Fort Clarence, and Norton Sound, where there are smaller 

 settlements or single huts, occupied in the winter but generally 

 abandoned in the summer. 



The inhabitants state, that the sea affords them several varieties 

 of whale, only one of which is usually pursued, the narwhal (occa- 

 sionally), the walrus, four different sorts of seal, the polar bear, and 

 some small fish ; the inlets and rivers yield them the salmon, the 

 herring, and the smelt, besides other kinds of large and small fish; 

 and on the land, besides abundance of berries and a few edible roots, 

 are obtained the reindeer, the imna (an animal which nearly answers 

 to the description of the argali or Siberian sheep), the hare, tho 

 brown or black bear, a few wolverines and martens, the wolf, the 

 lynx, blue and black foxes, the beaver, musk-rats and lemmings. 

 In summer, birds are very numerous, particularly geese in tho 

 interior and ducks on the coast. The ptarmigan and raven remain 

 throughout the winter, and the latter is the only living thing we 

 know to be rejected as food. Black-lead, and several varieties of 

 stones for making whet-stones, arrow-heads, and labrets, and for 

 striking fire, are also enumerated as the produce of the land and 

 articles of barter. The articles in common use, for which they 

 are indebted to strangers, are kettles, knives, tobacco, beads, and tin 

 for making pipes, almost all of which come from Asia. English 

 knives and beads are also in use, and within these few years, ai 

 Point Barrow, the Hudson's Buy musket and ammunition. The 



