E. B. Delabarre, Ph. D. 149 



no fuel except seal oil, and no domestic animals except their 

 mag-nificent dogs. One still finds in old graves specimens of 

 these cruder implements formerly in use. But a hundred 

 years of contact with the white man have given them many 

 of his utensils and methods. A few useful articles remain 

 much as in the days before they knew the white man and his 

 ways. One of these is the kayak, a rapid and seaworthy 

 canoe made of skin, entirely decked over except for the round 

 hole in the middle in which its one occupant sits. Another 

 is their remarkable harpoon, whose barb detaches itself from 

 the handle when the animal is hit, and, being attached to a 

 float and drag, prevents the escape of their game. Still a 

 third is the komatik, or dog sledge, in which the only impor- 

 tant change has been the substitution of iron runners for 

 those of wood, bone or frozen mud formerly in use; though 

 runners of ivory or whalebone are also still used. 



Most of the Eskimos now live in small communities of 

 not more than three or four hundred about the mission sta- 

 tions or the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company. Usually 

 their crude houses are of wood covered over on the outside 

 with turf; though in some places they are entirely of wood. 

 In former times their central dwelling was constructed of 

 walrus or whalebones covered over with skins, or of an 

 underground excavation, or of a half-underground, half-over 

 ground framework of stones covered with turf. One still 

 sees remnants of such structures. They often leave these 

 more permanent dwellings, however, and go ofif, in the sum- 

 mer for fishing, in the winter for hunting or sealing. It is 

 only on these occasions that they now use their snow houses 

 in winter, and in summer their skin topeks or canvas tents. 



The conditions of their life, with the continual necessity 



