100 



SCIENCE. 



The monopoly of the Anthracite coal fields by 

 some seven corporations, which, according to 

 the accompanying tables, now control about two- 

 thirds of the whole, and the best coal area, 

 must prove, under economic management, a profit- 

 able investment for their stockholders. Mining, 

 selling and transporting their own coal, as they do, 

 individual enterprise cannot hope to compete with 

 them, and must vanish from the ground, and their 

 only rivalry will be with each other, and with the 

 Bituminous trade. Fortunately for the public, this 

 rivalry will always be keen enough to keep the price 

 of coal at a fair low rate of cost and profit. 



The coal resources of Great Britain are all devel- 

 oped now, and in process of depletion ; while in this 

 country when our 470 square miles of Anthracite are 

 exhausted, we have more than 400 times that area, or 

 200,000 square miles of Bituminous, from which to 

 supply ourselves and the rest of mankind with fuel. 

 The coal product of the world is about 300,000,000 

 tons annually. The North American continent could 

 supply it all for 200 years. With an annual produc- 

 tion of 50,000,000 tons, it would require twelve cen- 

 turies to exhaust the supply. But with a uniform 

 product of 100,000,000 tons per annum, the end of 

 the Bituminous supply would be reached in 800 years. 

 What the annual consumption will be when this con- 

 tinent supports a teeming population of 400,000,000 

 souls, as will be the case some day, must be left to 

 conjecture. But with half that population, as ener- 

 getic, restless, and inventive as our people in this 

 stimulating climate have always been, under the 

 hopes of success, such a country as this constantly 

 holds out much to tempt ambition and reward enter- 

 prise. 



If it be true, as Baron Liebig asserts, that civiliza- 

 tion is the economy of power, we have it in our im- 

 mense areas of Bituminous coal. There is no known 

 agent that can answer as a substitute for the vast 

 power and almost limitless usefulness of coal in its 

 general adaptation to the wants of man ; and that 

 nation will maintain the foremost rank in enlightened 

 modern civilization which controls, to the fullest ex- 

 tent, while it lasts, this wonderful combination of 

 light and heat and force. We are wiser than our 

 fathers ; and from the modest but sublime altitude to 

 which we are lifted by physicial science, and the far 

 extended range of mental vision which it opens up to 

 us, we can see farther into the plans of Providence 

 than those who went before us, and can conjecture 

 the early, if not the remote, future of the human 

 race in our land and in other lands. 



Happy that people whose legislators study the best 

 mode of developing the natural resources of their 

 country, and whose great men become great by im- 

 proving the condition and promoting the welfare of 

 the human race. The greatest of England's five 

 Georges was not either of those who wore the crown, 

 but plain George Stephenson, of Manchester, who 

 rolled the world farther along the path of progress 

 than all the others; and none of the royal Jameses 

 did half so much for the civilization of his country as 

 James Watt, whose boyish study of the steaming 

 tea kettle developed the giant power that does the 

 world's work with an energy that is tireless and 

 irresistible. 



ETHNOLOGY.* 



FRAGMENTARY NOTES ON THE ESKIMO OF CUMBERLAND 

 SOUND. 



By Ludwig Kumlien. 

 II. 



They have an interesting custom or superstition, 

 namely, the killing of the evil spirit of the deer; 

 some time during the Winter or early in Spring, at 

 any rate before they can go deer-hunting, they con- 

 gregate together and dispose of this imaginary evil. 

 The chief ancoot, a/igekok, or medicine-man, is the 

 main performer. He goes through a number of gyra- 

 tions and contortions, constantly hallooing and calling, 

 till suddenly the imaginary deer is among them. Now 

 begins a lively time. Every one is screaming, running, 

 jumping, spearing, and stabbing at the imaginary 

 deer, till one would think a whole mad-house was let 

 loose. Often this deer proves very agile, and must be 

 hard to kill, for I have known them to keep this per- 

 formance up for days; in fact, till they were com- 

 pletely exhausted. 



During one of these performances an old man 

 speared the deer, another knocked out an eye, a third 

 stabbed him, and so on till he was dead. Those who 

 are able or fortunate enough to inflict some injury on 

 this bad deer, especially he who inflicts the death- 

 blow, is considered extremely lucky, as he will have 

 no difficulty in procuring as many deer as he wants, 

 for there is no longer an evil spirit to turn his bullets 

 or arrows from their course. 



They seldom kill a deer after the regular hunting 

 season is over, till this performance has been gone 

 through with, even though a very good opportunity 

 presents itself. 



Salnio salar, and one other species of Salmo that 

 I could not procure enough of to identify, are caught 

 to some extent in June and September in some of the 

 larger fjords; they are mostly caught with a spear, but 

 sometimes with a hook. (For description vide under 

 hunting-gear, etc.) 



When these fish are caught, they are put into a 

 seal-skin bag, and it remains tied up till the whole be- 

 comes a mass of putrid and fermenting fish, about as 

 repulsive to taste, sight and smell as can be imagined. 

 Coitus scorpius, which contributes so largely towards 

 the Greenlander's larder, is not utilized by the Cum- 

 berland Eskimo, except in cases of a scarcity of other 

 food supplies; the fish is abundant in their waters, 

 however, and fully as good eating as they are on the 

 Greenland coast. 



Birds and their eggs also contribute towards their 

 sustenance in season; they are extremely fond of eggs, 

 and devour them in astonishing quantities. 



The " black skin " of the whale, called by them 

 niubtitk, is esteemed the greatest delicacy. When 

 they first procure a supply of this food, they almost 

 invariably eat themselves sick, especially the children. 

 We found this black skin not unpleasant tasting when 

 boiled and then pickled in strong vinegar and eaten 

 cold; but the first attempts at masticating it will re- 

 mind one of chewing India rubber. When eaten to 

 excess, especially when raw, it acts as a powerful lax- 

 ative. It is generally eaten with about half an inch 

 of blubber adhering. 



* Hulletin (is) of the United States National Museum. Contributed to 

 the Natural History of Arctic America, made in connection with the 

 Howgatc Polar expedition, 1877-78. 



