Food 105 



next step is to cut off the head for the daily meal, and to lay the spine out to 

 dry on a stone or a seal-skin, together with any roe the fish may contain. The 

 spines of small fish not particularly rich in oil may be thrown to the dogs with 

 other scraps. The dogs fare rather badly at this season — the late spring and 

 early summer — for they receive hardly anything but fish-bones and broth; 

 much depends, however, on the quantity of food in camp at the time. 



The diet of the natives, then, is normally restricted to caribou, seal and 

 fish. These are supplemented in a few local areas by one or two other animals, 

 by. polar bears in western Victoria island, squirrels in the valleys of the Rae 

 and Coppermine rivers, and musk-oxen in both north-west Victoria island 

 and in the country round Bathurst inlet. The skin of the musk-ox is prized 

 for bedding only, being too coarse and heavy for ordinary clothing when deer- 

 skin is available; but for this fact the animal would probably have long since 

 been exterminated in this region. Ducks are numerous in the spring and fall,^ 

 geese and loons are met with occasionally, while ptarmigan, though rare in 

 winter, may yet be found in most places at all seasons of the year. The 

 natives shoot a few from time to time, but the supply is too uncertain for them 

 to go out of their way to look for them. Sea-gulls and hawks are sometinaes 

 eaten, though Europeans find them distasteful. The children often shoot 

 small birds, such as plovers and longspurs. Their skins serve for hand towels, 

 while their bodies, if the birds are of medium size, are cooked with other meat; 

 but small birds Uke longspurs and snow buntings are either eaten raw, head, 

 feet and all, or thrown away. Occasionally a rabbit, a wolverine, or a wolf is 

 shot, and hardly a summer passes that the Eskimos on the mainland do not 

 secure two or three brown bears. Now that traps are becoming numerous 

 more foxes are caught then before; the meat of a lean fox is very rank, but one 

 that is rich in fat is palatable enough. Generally speaking, however, it is in 

 the nature of a luxury for an Eskimo to dine off anything but caribou, fish or 

 seal.2 



The Eskimos are as fond of the fat that is found in geese, loons and eider 

 ducks as they are of caribou fat. They pluck the feathers from the body of the 

 bird, but leave them on the wings and legs. The body is then skinned and the 

 meat cooked in the usual manner. Later the skin is boiled, and the layer of 

 fat that forms on the surface of the water is either drunk immediately or 

 skimmed off into another vessel, when it congeals like lard. The eggs of these 

 birds are sometimes boiled, but most of the Eskimos seem to find them distaste- 

 ful. Near Bernard harbour there was a rocky islet which the eider ducks 

 had made their nesting ground. Hundreds of eggs could be obtained there 

 each spring, but the local natives never troubled to collect them. I have seen 

 an Eskimo girl take an immature egg from the body of a freshly-killed ptarmigan 

 and eat it raw, but the same girl was horrified when a western native ate some 

 boiled duck's eggs which turned out, when opened, to have immature chicks 

 inside them. 



Cooking among these people is not an art that calls for much skill or 

 experience. An Eskimo woman has many to cook for as a rule, and during 

 their life on land the pot has usually to be refilled two or three times in order 

 to provide a single meal. Hence the meat is cut into large portions and as 

 much as possible crammed into the pot at once. It matters little if half of it 

 projects out of the water, for as soon as the lower half is cooked each piece can 

 be turned end for end. Sometimes the meat is served up half raw, more smoked 



'Collinson, p. 285, says that the yellow top-knot of the male king eider was a favourite tit-bit with 

 the Eskimos of Cambridge bay. 



'Dr. Anderson (op. cit., p. 63) explains how the Eskimos procure the salt that is said to be so necessary 

 for the maintenance of health in men and animals. He points out that the melted snow used for drinking 

 water is frequently very saline, and that caribou meat, especially in the fall, contains a considerable amount 

 of aalt. 



