382 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



when the fur of the beaver is again in prime condition; then Castor 

 canadensis receives their undivided attention. They catch these 

 giant rodents in wooden "dead-falls," and also by breaking open 

 the dams, which causes the water to suddenly leave the beavers fully 

 exposed to the spears of their savage human enemies. 



When the first snow flies in October they rig up rude deer-skin 

 boats, like the " bull-boats " on the Missouri, and float all their traps 

 and rude equipage down the river back from whence they started. 

 They all return for the winter by the middle of October ; then, with- 

 out going far from the vicinity of their settlements, they renew and 

 set up fresh dead-fall traps for marten they never go any distance 

 from home for this little animal, and when ice forms on the rivers, 

 about the end of October or early in November, they put their white- 

 fish traps under it. The marten- trapping is abandoned in Decem- 

 ber, because the intense, stormy, and cold weather then drives these 

 pine-weasels into winter holes, where they remain semi-dormant 

 until the end or middle of February. During this period of severe 

 wintry weather the Innuit gives himself up to unrestrained loafing 

 and vigorous dancing festivals, which last until the year is again 

 renewed by going out to the mountains in February. 



These natives of the Nooshagak and Kuskokvim regions have a 

 large and varied natural food-supply. They have reindeer-meat, 

 the flesh of moose, of bears, and of all the smaller fur-bearing 

 animals found in this territory the list is a full one, comprising 

 land-otters, cross, red, and black foxes, the mink, the marten, the 

 marmot, and the ground-squirrel, or " yeavrashka," which last is 

 the most abundant. The bears are all brown in this country no 

 black ones. They also secure large gray and white wolves, while 

 those who live right on the coast of Bering Sea get walrus, the 

 big "mahklok" seal, and a little harbor phoca, or "nearpah." 



They have a great abundance of water-fowl, such as geese, 

 ducks, and the small waders, and they occasionally kill a beluga, or 

 white grampus, and at still more rare intervals they find a stranded 

 whale, which is set upon and eaten. They save carefully all the oil 

 which comes from marine mammals ; they treasure it up in seal- 

 skin bags that are placed high up above the reach of dogs and 

 foxes on a frame scaffold which adjoins every hut. Fish-oil is also 

 secured in the same manner ; it answers a threefold purpose it 

 serves for food, for fuel, and for light, and it is a luxurious skin 

 and hair dressing for them all, old and young. 



