396 COOKERY. 



surface, and seemed to be incorporated, by some unexplained 

 process, into a gelatinous snow, which they scraped up easily 

 with the hand and ate with satisfaction fish- oil predomi- 

 nating. It was not offensive nor putrid. How many years 

 the lower mass may have remained there I could not deter- 

 mine ; but estimating the supply in one yourt as proportioned 

 for ten people the allowance of inhabitants for each yourt 

 the daily proportion for the complete store would allow for 

 three hundred days, or about twenty-four pounds per soul/' 

 He estimates the quantity of solid meat in this storehouse 

 alone at 71,424 pounds. Captain Ross also mentions* the 

 large stores of food laid up by the Esquimaux of Boothia 

 Felix during the summer for winter use. The habit does not, 

 however, appear to be general among the Esquimaux, though 

 they all of them make " caches " of meat under stone cairns. 



Charlevoix derives the name Esquimaux from the Indian 

 word Eskimantsik, which means " eaters of raw food ;" many 

 of these northern tribes being in the habit of eating their 

 meat uncooked. We must in justice to them remember 

 that several of our Arctic Expeditions have adopted the 

 same custom, which seems indeed in those latitudes, highly 

 conducive to health. f 



Their food if cooked at all is broiled or boiled. Their 

 vessels being of stone or wood cannot, indeed, be put on 

 the fire ; but heated stones are thrown in until the water 

 becomes hot enough, and the food is cooked. Of course, 

 the result is a mess of soot, dirt, and ashes, which would, 

 according to our ideas, be almost intolerable; but, if the 

 stench of their houses does not take away a man's appetite, 

 nothing else would be likely to do so. They never wash their 

 pots or kettles ; the dogs save them this trouble. Those who 



* Narrative of a Second Voyage, p. 251 ; and Appendix, p. 21. See also 

 Hall's Life with the Esquimaux, vol. ii., p. 311 ; Kane's Arctic Explorations, 

 vol. ii., p. 133. 



t See, for instance, Kane's Arctic Explorations, vol. ii., p. 14. 



