•JfJ.vJ TH1-; POINT BAKKOW ESKDIO. 



ainimuiitiou or oil. ami at tlic end of the season a lucky hunter ahnost 

 always semis in to borrow extra dogs and hire women and children to 

 help ItrinR in iiis f:aine. The skins, which at this season are very thick 

 ami lieavy. suitable only for blankets, heavy stockings, etc., are simply 

 niimli iliied in tiie ojx'n air. and brought in stacked np on aflat sled. 

 I,i4iu. Hay met a NiiwfiU paity returning in 1882 with a pile of these 

 skins tliat looked like a load of hay. With such heavy loads they, of 

 course. tra\il \ery slowly. A few natives, especially when short of 

 ainnninition, still use at fliis season the snow pitfalls nientioned'by 

 ('apt. Maguire.' 



The following is the description of those seen by Lieut. Ray in 18S;3: 

 A round hole is dug in the drifted snow, along the bank of a stream or 

 lake. This is about .') feet in diameter and 5 or 6 feet deep, and is brought 

 up to within L' or .'5 iiu'hes of the surfiice, where there is only a small 

 hole, through which the snow was removed. This is carefully closed 

 with a thin slab of snow' and baited by strewing reindeer moss and 

 bunches of grass over the thin surface, through which the deer breaks 

 as soon as he stepson it. The natives say that they sometimes get two 

 deer at onc^e. 



This method of hunting the reindeer appears uncommon among the 

 Eskimo. I find no mention of it except at Eepulse Bay.^ and among 

 the Netsilliugmiut, where dogs' urine is said to be sprinkled ou the 

 snow- as a bait to attract the deer by its " Salzgehalt.'" Lieut. Ray 

 was informed by the natives that the " Nunatanmiun " also captured 

 deer by means of a rawhide noose set across a regular deer path, when 

 they discovered such. The noose is held up and spicad by a couple of 

 sticks, and the end staked to the ground with a piece of antler. A sim- 

 ilar method was practiced by the natives of Norton Sound.^ A few 

 jiarties visit the rivers in summer for the purpose of hunting reindeer, 

 but most of the natives are either off on the trading expeditions pre- 

 viously mentioned or else settled in the small camps along the coast, 

 .'{ or 4 miles ai)art, whence they occasionally go a short distance inland 

 in search of reindeer. 



I'lii- .srrt/.— The flesh of the smaller seals forms such a staple of food, and 

 their blubber and skin serve so many important piu'poses, that their cap- 

 ture is one of the most necessary pursuits at Point Barrow, and is car- 

 ried on at all seasons of the year and in many different methods. During 

 the season of open water many seals are shot from the umiaks engaged 

 in whahng and walrus hunting or caught in nets set along the shore at 

 HIson Bay. This is also the (mly season when seals can be captured 

 with the small kaiak darts. 



The princii)al seal lisheiy, however, begins with the closing of the sea, 

 usually about tlie middle „f October. When the pack ice comes in 

 there are usually many small ojieu pools, to which the seals resort for 

 air. Most ot the able liodied men in the village are out every day armed 



'"■" ' " ' ' "" , P.13L 



