MURDOCH. } FOOD. 61 
great deal of iron pyrites. White gypsum, used for rubbing the flesh 
side of deerskins, is obtained on the seashore at a place called Ti'tyé, 
‘one sleep” east from Point Barrow. 
Bituminous coal, alu’a, is well known, though not used for fuel. 
Many small fragments, which come perhaps from the vein at Cape Beau- 
fort,! are picked up on the beach. Shaly, very bituminous coal, broken 
into small square fragments, is rather abundant on the bars of Kulu- 
grua, whence specimens were brought by Capt. Herendeen. <A native 
of Wainwright Inlet gave us to understand that coal existed in a regu- 
lar vein near that place, and told a story of a burning hill in that 
region. This may be a coal bed on fire, or possibly * smoking cliffs,” like 
those seen by the Investigator in Franklin Bay.* We also heard a story 
of a lake of tar or bitumen, 4dngun, said to be situated on an island a 
day’s sail east of the point. Blacklead, mi/nun, and red ocher are 
abundant and used as pigments, but we did not learn where they were 
obtained. Pieces of amber are sometimes found on the beach and are 
carried as amulets or (rarely) made into beads. Amber is called aime, 
a word that in other Eskimo dialects, and probably in this also, means 
‘sa live coal.” Its application to a lump of amber is quite a striking 
figure of speech. 
CULTURE. 
MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE. 
FOOD. 
Substances used for food.—The food of these people consists almost en- 
tirely of animal substances. The staple article of food is the flesh of 
the rough seal, of which they obtain more than of any other meat. Next 
in importance is the venison of the reindeer, though this is looked upon 
as a kind of dainty. Many well developed foetal remdeer are brought 
home from the spring deer hunt and are said to be excellent eating, 
though we never saw them eaten. They also eat the flesh of the other 
three species of seal, the walrus, the polar bear, the ‘*bowhead” whale, 
the white’ whale, and all the larger kinds of birds, geese, ducks, gulls, 
and grouse. All the different kinds of fish appear to be eaten, with the 
possible exception of the two species of Lycodes (only a few of these 
were caught, and all were purchased for our collection) and very little 
of a fish is wasted except the hardest parts. Walrus hide is sometimes 
cooked and eaten in times of scarcity. Mollusks of any kind are rarely 
eaten, as it is difficult to procure them. After a heavy gale in the 
autumn of 1881, when the beach was covered with marine animals, mostly 
thrown over from ships. Tents of the Tuski, p. 221. 
2Discovery of the Northwest Passage, p. 100. 
2The Eskimo of Iglulik ‘prefer venison to any kind of meat.” Parry, 2d Voyage, p. 910. 
