INNUIT LIFE AND LAND. 381 



no higher than a stooping posture within warrants. This is also a 

 great resort for his dogs, which renders the place very offensive 

 to us. 



The summer houses are erected above ground, and are generally 

 slight pole frames, roofed with skins and open in front ; fire is 

 rarely made in them, and therefore they have no opening in the 

 roof, all cooking being done in the open air during fine weather. 

 They seldom have flooring, but otherwise the interior arrangements 

 resemble those of the winter houses. The store-houses of all our 

 Eskimo tribes are set on posts at a height of from eight to ten 

 feet above the ground, to protect them from foxes, wolves, and dogs. 

 They have generally a small square opening in front that can be 

 closed with a sliding board, and which is reached by means of a 

 notched stick of wood. These boxes are seldom more than eight 

 feet square by three or four feet in height. 



The routine of life which these natives of the Nooshagak and 

 Kuskokvim valleys and streams follow is one of much activity they 

 are on the tramp or are paddling up and down the rivers pretty 

 much all of the time. A year is divided up by them about as 

 follows : In February they prepare to go to the mountains, and go 

 then most of them do, though some will be as late as April in get- 

 ting away on account of their children, or of sheer laziness. They 

 move with the entire family outfit, bag and baggage, dogs, sleds, 

 and boats. They settle down along by the small mountain streams, 

 trap martens, shoot deer, and dig out beaver. February and March 

 are the best months for marten, April and May for the beaver, bear, 

 and land-otter. 



By June 10th they return to their winter villages and visit the 

 trading-posts. They then begin their preparations for salmon-fish- 

 ing, getting their traps into shape so as to be used effectively when 

 those fish begin to run. They air-dry salmon on frames, and put the 

 heads in holes and allow them to rot slightly before eating ; also 

 the spawn, which, however, is preserved in oil, and used as a great 

 delicacy during their own festivals in the midwinter season. The 

 salmon-fishing is all over about July 20th. By August 10th these 

 nomads return to the mountains, leaving the old women and young- 

 est children with their mothers in charge of the caches at the vil- 

 lages. This time they go for reindeer, which have just shed their 

 hair and are in the full beauty of new, fine, sleek coats. They 

 hunt these animals from that time until the middle of September, 



