wl:edoch.] food. fjl 



great deal of irou pyrites. White j;yi)siun. used I'm- nihliinu Hi,. i|,.sli 

 side of deerskiu.s, is obtained on the seasiiinc ;it a place callcil TiVixr' 

 "one sleep" east from Point Barrow. 



Bituminous coal, alu'a, is well known, thdiii^h ndi iisid lor nicl 

 Many small fragments, wiiich come perliaps tidm ilic \,.iii ^ii C;,,,,. i;,.;,!! 

 fort,' are picked up on tlic heacli. Shaly, \cr\- liitiiniinoiis cdal, hrnkcn 

 into small square fragments, is rather ahMn<hint mi Ihcharsdi' Kuhi 

 grua, whence specimens wen- hrou^ht li.\-('a|)t. Ilcrcii(h-i'ii. A nali\c 

 of Waiuwright Inlet ixnvv us to understand thai coal exislcd In ;i reuu 

 lar vein near that place, and r(d(l a story of a burniiiu hill in that 

 region. This may be a coal lied on fire, <ir possil)ly "sinokinn- dill's," like 

 those .seen by the Tin-rxti(jitt„r in Fraiddin Bay.-' We also heard a story 

 of a lake of tar or liitumeii, adn<;-un, said to be situated on an island a 

 day's sail east of the iioiut. Blacklead. iiiiTiiui. and red oclier are 

 abundant and used as pigments, but we did not learn where tlie\ were 

 obtained. Pieces of amber are sometinu's fouml on the beach and aie 

 carried as amulets or (rarely) made into beads. Amber is called aumi;, 

 a word that in other Eskimo dialects, and jnobably in this also, means 

 "a live coal." Its application to a lump of amber is (piite a striking 

 figure of speech. 



Substances used for food. — The food of these ])eo])le consists almost en- 

 tirely of animal substances. The staple article of food is the tlesh of 

 the rough seal, of which they ol)tain more than of any othei- meat. Xext 

 in importance is the venison of the icindeei', though this is looked uiion 

 as a kind of dainty.^ .Many well developed fietal reimh-er are bniught 



home from the s|irin.u dcei- hunt and are said to 1 x<-ellent eating. 



though we never saw them eaten. They also eat the tlesh of tl ther 



three species of .seal, the walrus, the polar bear, the "bowhead" whale, 

 the white whale, and all tin- larger kinds of birds, gei^se. ducks, gulls, 



and grou.se. All the different kinds of fish apjiear to 1 aten, with the 



l)Ossil)le exceiition of the two species of Lycodes (only a few of these 

 were cau-iit, and all were iiuivhased foi <iur collection) and veiy little 

 of a fish is wasted except the hardest jiarts. Walrus hide is sometimes 

 cooked anil eaten in times of scarcity. .Mollnsks of any kind are rarely 

 eaten, as it is ditfi<-ult to procure them. .Mter a heavy gale in the 

 autumn of 1881, when the beach was covered with marine animals, mostly 

 lamellibranch mollnsks with their shells and softer parts broken oft' by 



■ Hooper found cotI on tlio bvach at Nuwttk in 1849. showing; that this coal has 

 thrown over from ships. Tents of the Tiiski, p. 221. 

 'Di.scovery of the N'mtliwi'st I'assasB, j>. 100. 

 'The Eskimo of Iglulik ■ prefor vonison to any kind of meat." Parry. -M Vnya 



