ESKIMO OF Hudson's strait. 215 



their own description, must be about one hundred and fifty miles in 

 length, and twenty-five miles broad, and apparently has never been 

 visited by civilized being. 



Early in June all the hunters retiirned to the coast and immediately 

 commenced laying in a stock of walrus and seal meat, which was cut 

 into strips, sewn up in bags, made of the whole skin of a seal, and 

 cached. 



On June 10th the first kyaks of the season were launched at Cape 

 Prince of Wales, and from this time until the end of August a sharp 

 lookout was kept for the white whale which gives a large supply of 

 food. 



For the second time in the year the deer season commences about 

 August 20th and lasts a month, during which time some exceedingly 

 hard work is done to secure enough skins for clothing and bedding 

 for the winter. 



During the latter part of September and until the sea is once more 

 covered with ice, about the end of November, walruses are hunted. 

 After this cl^ite tlie kyaks are put away, and until the ice is firm the 

 times are very hard ; and now the caches are opened and a large hole 

 is soon made in their small winter's stock of provisions. With empty 

 stomachs and leaky wigwams they exist until the latter pai't of 

 December, when once more they build snow igloos and winter life 

 begins again in earnest. 



Besides the walrus, deer, seal and whale we might include all mam- 

 mals and birds found in this region as comprising the Eskimo's food sup- 

 ply, but as several are only eaten when they are starving we may con- 

 sider the following as a complete list of articles of food upon which 

 they subsist : — Bear, rabbit, fox, dog and lemming, duck, goose, loon, 

 young birds of all kinds, eggs, three or four species of fi.sh, clams, 

 mussels, shrimps, crayfish, one species of algae, the flowers of two, the 

 roots of two, and the berries of three different plants, besides the bark 

 of the willow, large quantities of which ai"e oaten in the spring. The 

 fox, dog, and lemming are only eaten in cases of extreme hunger, and 

 the hardest to swallow seems to be the former, which even the Eskimo 

 <log would not touch while scraps of dry seal skin were to be found. 

 In eating any vegetable food they usually preferred to dip it into oil 

 before swallowing. Quantities of seaweed are eaten especially during 



