384 OUR ARCTIC provincp:. 



oil and walrus-ivoiy. Their proximity to a relatively warm coast 

 renders the furs which tliey get of small value comparatively, since 

 these pelts are paler and lighter-haired than those brought in from 

 the distant interior, where the winters are vastly colder and longer. 

 But an Innuit does not require a great deal from the trader — he is 

 very much more independent than is his semi-civilized Aleutian 

 brother ; his vs^ants are only a small supj^ly of lead and powder, of 

 sugar and of tobacco, a little red cloth and a small sack of flour which 

 suffice for a large Innuit family during the year. The flour he makes 

 up into pancakes and fries them in rancid oil ; but, as a rule, all cook- 

 ing is a mere boiling or stewing of fish and meat in sheet-iron or cop- 

 per kettles. In those huts Avhere they can afford to use tea, a small 

 number of earthenware cups and saucers will be found carefully 

 treasured in a little cupboard ; but they never set a table or think 

 of such a thing, except those highly favored individuals who live as 

 servants about the trading-posts and missions, where they do boil 

 a "samovar" (tea-urn) and spread a cloth over the top of a box or 

 rude table upon which to j)lace their teacups. 



Down here at Nooshagak these natives have earned a distinction 

 of being the most skilful sculptors of the whole northern range. 

 Their carvings in walrus-ivory are exceedingly curious, and beauti- 

 fully wrought in many examples. The j^atience and fidelity with 

 which they cut from walrus-tusks delicate patterns furnished them 

 by the traders are equal in many respects to that remarkable display 

 made in the same line by the Chinese, and so much admired. 

 Time to them, at Nooshagak, is never reckoned, and it does not 

 raise a ripple of concern in the Innuit's mind when, as he carves 

 upon a tusk of white ivory, he pauses to think whether he shall be 

 six hours or six months engaged upon the task. Shut up as he is 

 ■from December until the end of February in his dark and smoky 

 hut, he welcomes the task as one which enables him to " kill time " 

 most agreeably, and bring in a trifle, at least, to him from the trader 

 in the way of credit or of direct revenue. 



All of these people, when they go hunting, use fire-arms of mod- 

 ern patterns and many old flint-lock muskets ; for fish and bird- 

 capture they never waste any precious ammunition ; they employ 

 spears and arrows of most artful construction and efl:ective service. 

 But a large number of those very primitive Eskimo, the Togiaks, 

 just west and north of Nooshagak, use nothing at all in the chase 

 other than the same antique bows and spears of a remote ancestry. 



