Country of the Copper Eskimos 13 



CHAPTER I 

 THE COUNTRY OF THE COPPER ESKIMOS^ 



Although the region inhabited by the Copper Eskimos attains to no very 

 extreme latitudes — hardly more than a few degrees, indeed, beyond the Arctic 

 circle — yet its continental character renders the climate more severe than might 

 otherwise be expected. The Eskimos themselves divide the year into five 

 seasons: winter, okiuk, from the middle of November till the end of February, 

 when the sun barely rises above the horizon at noon and for several weeks is 

 missing altogether; early spring, opinraksak, from the beginning of March till 

 the latter half of April, when the snow begins to melt; spring proper, opinrak, 

 from the end of April till the land is bare of snow; summer, auyak, when the days 

 are warm, the snow has left the ground, and for a few slaort weeks all but the 

 largest lakes are free from ice; and finally autumn, okiuksak, when the weather 

 once again grows cold, the lakes freeze over, and the land begins to resume its 

 winter garb. The lengths of the different seasons naturally vary somewhat from 

 year to year, but autumn will roughly include the period from about the middle 

 of September till the middle of November, while summer comprises the months 

 of July and August and the early part of September. 



Tbe coldest period is from the middle of January till towards the end of 

 February. In the winter of 1914-15 the average temperatures of the four coldest 

 months were: November —9° F., December —4° F., January —24° F., and Feb- 

 ruary — 22°F., while the first fifteen days of March averaged —24° F. For the 

 corresponding months in the winter of 1915-16 the temperatures were, November 

 -12° F., December -19° F., January -17° F., February -25° F., and March 

 up to the 15th, —22° F. The lowest temperatures recorded were —49° F. in the 

 former winter, on January 20, 1915, and —44° F. in the latter, on February 19, 

 1916. These readings were obtained at Bernard harbour; lower figures were 

 registered at times in other places, but probably the thermometer seldom or 

 never falls as low at any place along the coast as on the plateau to the south.^ 



Winds of extreme velocity are of very rare occurrence. The maximum 

 recorded in winter by the expedition's anemometer at Bernard harbour was 46 

 miles an hour, on December 7, 1915, whereas at Collinson point, in north Alaska, 

 80 miles an hour was registered in the winter of 1913-14. It is the long-continued 

 cold with a certain dampness in the atmosphere, and the combination of a strong 

 wind with a low temperature, that renders the climate very severe. In one of 

 the worst bhzzards in the winter of 1914-15 the thermometer stood at —30° F. 

 while the wind had an average' velocity of 30 miles an hour. In the following 

 winter there were several blizzards when the temperature was below —20° F., 

 and the wind above 20 miles an hour. In March, 1916, almost every man in a 

 settlement of Kilusiktok natives at the Jamieson islands had the marks of severe 

 frost-bites on his face, though there are grounds for believing that the average 

 Eskimo freezes less easily than the average European. Travelling under these 

 conditions is rendered more difficult by the lack of all road-houses; the Eskimo 

 at the end of each day's journey in winter has to build a new snow-hut for himself 



'This chapter deals with the country in its economic aspects only, in so far as they affect the Eskimo 

 inhabitants. For descriptions of its topography, geology and biology the reader is referred to the special 

 reports on those subjects that are being published by other members of the expedition. Cf . also Stefansson, 

 My Life with the Eskimos (especially the appendix by Dr. R. M. Anderson), and Anthrop. Papers, A.M. 

 N.H., vol. XIV, ft. I, Introduction. 



^The Rev. H. Girling informs me that in the winter of 1916-17 his thermometer at Bernard harbour 

 reeistered —57° F. for three days, and in the following winter it dropped on one occasion as low as —62° F. 



