400 FIRE. 



venience ; and, in fact, the most unhealthy season is the 

 spring, when the weather is too warm for snow huts, and too 

 cold for tents. Thus, therefore, the Esquimaux, though living 

 in a climate so extremely rigorous, would be debarred from the 

 use of fires by the very nature of their dwellings, even if they 

 were able to obtain the necessary materials. They never, says 

 Simpson, "seem to think of fire as a means of imparting 

 warmth ;"* their lamps are used for cooking, for light, and 

 for melting snow and drying clothes, rather than to warm 

 the air,f and as, nevertheless, the body temperature of the 

 Esquimaux is almost the same as ours, it is evident that they 

 must require a large amount of animal food. The quantity 

 of meat which they consume is astonishing ; and it is worthy 

 of remark that from the scarcity of wood in the far north, 

 they use the same substance for food and fuel ; the calorific 

 material being the same namely, blubber whether the heat 

 is to be obtained by digestion or combustion ; whether the 

 material is to be placed in a lamp and burnt, or to be eaten 

 and digested. In summer, however, when it is less neces- 

 sary to keep down the general temperature, they sometimes 

 burn bones well saturated with oil. For obtaining fire the 

 Esquimaux generally use lumps of iron pyrites and quartz, 

 from which they strike sparks on to moss which has been 

 well dried and rubbed between the hands. J They are also 

 acquainted with the method of obtaining it by friction, 

 which is a slower and more laborious process. It appears, 

 however, to be the one generally pursued by the Greenland 

 Esquimaux. || 



It has been generally assumed that man could scarcely live 

 in temperate climates, and certainly not in the arctic regions, 

 without the advantage of fire. From the above facts, how- 



* Discoveries in North. America, p. 346. f Kane, I.e. vol. ii., p. 202. 



J Kane, I.e. vol. i., p. 379; Parry, I.e. p. 504; Ross, I.e. p. 513. 

 Lyon's Journal, p 290. || Egede, I.e. p. 138. 



