ytine 2\, iSSo] 



NA TURE 



173 



non which has occurred has broken the spell ; but often 

 he is truly oracular in his utterances, as in a case over- 

 heard by the author, in which one was asked by a young 

 woman if her child would be a boy or a girl. He went 

 outside the hut for a time, and on returning said it would 

 " be a boy," but " if it is not a boy it will be a girl." 

 His fee for this was three sealskins and a knife. 



The Hogarth Sound Eskimo, unlike the Greenlanders, 

 have no permanent habitations. They live in snow 

 houses {igloos) till June, when the snow melts, and then 

 take to their skin tents or toopiks till the latter part of 

 October, when they build igloos again. 



A detailed account of the mode of making of the igloos 

 is given, and a horrible one of the condition of the in- 

 habited interior. Behind and around the lamps the Eskimo 

 pile up their meat, and the pile soon becomes extremely 

 offensive both to sight and smell. Meat is sometimes 

 brought in that is already spoiled, although the tempera- 

 ture may be 50° below zero. This often liappens with deer, 

 which, unless disembowelled as soon as killed, rapidly 

 decompose inside before freezing through. 



Bows and arrows have been discarded for fire-arms, 

 but are, as usual amongst 'other races, maintained in use 

 by the children, who kill snow-birds and lemmings with 

 them. The Eskimo are not very expert at making traps 

 ■or snares apparently, but the simple box-trap of ice for 

 foxes seems to be very effective. The slab of ice which 

 falls and closes it is simply supported by a small upright 

 of ice resting on the bait, and comes down directly the 

 fox pulls at the meat. The author tried steel traps for the 

 foxes, without success ; the wily foxes always dug under 

 the traps in the snow, and got at the bait from below. 



Nearly all the Eskimo become snow-blind in spring, 

 and generally do not put on their well-known wooden 

 ej-e-blinkers until the condition of their eyes forbids their 

 going out without them. 



The ceremony of greeting a stranger on his arrival at 

 a village is curious, and ends by the ancoot and the stranger 

 stepping out before the villagers and dealing one another 

 alternately a knock-down blow on the cheek, the ancoot 

 of course having first hit : the two then kiss. In another 

 •ceremony vestments are used, that is to say, the ancoot 

 puts on a great many pairs of trousers, as a preparation. 

 Formerly all the implements of a dead man were left to 

 rot in his grave, as amongst other American races and so 

 very many peoples in various parts of the world, but of 

 late years the Eskimo have amended this usage, and after 

 the things have remained a short time in the grave, they 

 are taken out and used again by the relatives. In very 

 recent graves tin cups and pots, knives, and even one 

 fork, a photograph, and a Harper's Weekly Newspaper 

 were found, a fact which reminds us of having seen a 

 sewing machine rusting on the grave of a Chinook woman 

 in Oregon. 



Charms of very various kinds are worn about the 

 person by the Eskimo, and much prized and handed 

 down for generations ; one such consisted of two small 

 stones, one a bluish flint, the other apparently meteoric 

 iron. An ancestor discovered by accident that the two 

 would strike fire, and became, in consequence of their 

 possession, a great man amongst the people. The old 

 woman to whom this charm belonged, considered it of 

 inestimable value, for she said, " No one has yet died 

 while wearing this charm." The ancoots are often very 

 •expert jugglers. A common trick is for one of them to 

 ■come into a hut with a harpoon toggled in his breast 

 and the handle sticking in his back, the wound bleeding 

 profusely. 



Of the creation of man the Eskimo say : " In the 

 beginning there grew up from the earth a man ; he got a 

 wife from one of his thuinhs, and from this pair the race 

 has originated. But the white;, whom they call cablunet, 

 or codlunak, they have sprung from dogs. An Eskimo 

 woman at one time gave birth to human beings and dogs. 



The latter she put in an old boot, and threw them out 

 into the sea, saying. Go hence, and become white people. 

 From this it happens that the whites Hve on the sea and 

 their ships are like Innuit's boots, round at both ends. This 

 is a very different notion from the Australian " tumble 

 down, black fellow, jump up, white fellow," and less com- 

 plimentary to the pale faces. 



A good deal of the information about the Eskimo given 

 by the author is of course not new, but the descriptions 

 are very fresh and good, and it is of importance to have 

 so full an account of the present condition of the natives 

 of the west coast of Davis Straits. 



An account of the mammalia of Hogarth Sound by the 

 same author follows the ethnological ones. The mam- 

 malia seem to be disappearing from the neighbourhood 

 with great rapidity. Bears, walrus, and the hooded seal 

 are very scarce up the sound, and of the musk-ox the 

 traces remain only in the personal name "omingmuk,'' 

 which is used commonly amongst the Eskimo, who know 

 the animal well as found far to the north. 



In the account of the Eskimo dogs the curious theory 

 is upheld by Mr. Kumlien that the peculiar rabies of 

 which they so commonly die is produced in the males 

 by unrequited affection towards the opposite sex, and in- 

 stances in proof are cited. At least four-fifths of the dogs 

 so dying are males. 



There is an interesting account of the various seals of 

 the coast and their habits, and of the modes of catching 

 them adopted by the Eskimo, and also of the whales. 

 The author has known the white whales ( Beluga catodoii) 

 to come in close proximity to the ship and lie along her 

 sides for protection when pursued by the grampus or 

 killer, Oixa gladiator. The white whales ascend the 

 sound as soon as the ice begins to loosen, but for what 

 purpose seems uncertain ; the mothers already have their 

 young with them, and as little or nothing is found in the 

 animals' stomachs when killed, they do not appear to go 

 up the sound for food. In July they repair in hundreds 

 to the sand-beaches of the fjords. The author suggests 

 that perhaps they roll against the sand to free themselves 

 of parasites. Numerous seals (apparently Pagomys 

 fwtidus) were found inhabiting a fresh-water lake. Lake 

 Kennedy, lying at a considerable distance inland. 



In the account of the birds, also by Mr. Kumlien, some 

 curious notes on the habits of ravens, which are extra- 

 ordinarily common on the sound, are given. Six or seven 

 hunting in company soon kill a young reindeer, and "in 

 the capture of the young seal, Pagomys fcetidus, the birds 

 evince a considerable degree of intelligence. I have on 

 different occasions witnessed them capture a young seal 

 that lay basking in the sun on the ice near its hole. 

 The first manoeuvre of the ravens was to sail leisurely 

 over the seal, gradually lowering with each circle, till 

 at last one of them suddenly dropped directly into the 

 seal's hole, thus cutting off its retreat from the water. 

 Its mate would then attack the seal, and endeavour 

 to drag or drive it as far away from the hole as pos- 

 sible. The attacking raven seemed to strike the seal 

 on the top of the head with its powerful beak, and thus 

 break the tender skull. In two instances I allowed the 

 combat to proceed until the seal was killed, and then 

 drove the ravens away. I found no marks upon the seal 

 except those of the blows upon the head, which had frac- 

 tured the skull in two places." Two ravens were seen to 

 chase a hare in concert and kill it. 



We regret that we cannot follow the author further. 



The Bulletin contains lists of the fishes collected in addi- 

 tion, by Mr. T. H. Bean, with descriptions of species ; of 

 the Crustacea by Mr. S. S. Smith ; of the annelides, tuni- 

 cata, bryozoa, echinoderms, and ccelenterates by Prof. 

 \'errill ; of the mollusca by Mr. W. H. Dall ; of the 

 insects by Messrs. Edwards and Scudder ; and of the 

 plants by Prof. Asa Gray and Messrs. E. Tuckerman and 

 W. G. Farlow. 



