SCIENCE. 



215 



they were required to walk a given distance, as on a 

 regular march, they would give out. 



The Cumberland Eskimo are known to make better 

 and more beautiful clothing than the tribes of North- 

 ern Hudson's Bay and Straits. During the summer, 

 and, in fact at all seasons, except when the weather is 

 very severe, the outer garment of the men is made 

 from the skins of adult — or, more properly speaking, 

 yearlings, as they are the best — Pagomys fatidus. In 

 very cold weather, they betake themselves to deer-skin 

 clothing; but as these clothes are less strong than the 

 sealskin, they make the change as soon as the weather 

 permits. The women wear the deer-skin clothes much 

 later in the season than the men ; their dress is also 

 made of the same kind of seal, unless they are fortu- 

 nate enough to procure Collocefihalus vitulinus, which 

 skins are so highly prized that they use them even 

 though there is only sufficient for a part of the fronts 

 of their jackets. 



Both the men and women wear a garment the ex- 

 act duplicate in shape under the outer one; this gar- 

 ment is made either from the young seal in the white 

 coat or of reindeer. 



The coat of the men does not open in front, but is 

 drawn on over the head like a shirt, and has a hood 

 that fits the head snugly, while the woman's hood is 

 large and loose, and the jacket is quite loose-fitting, 

 so as to receive the child, which is always carried in 

 the hood. The woman's jacket further differs from 

 the men's in being shorter in front, and ending in a 

 rounded point, while behind it reaches quite to the 

 ground in the form of a lance-shaped train. This 

 appendage is caught up in the same manner as the 

 fashionable train of the present day among civilized 

 nations, when the condition of the ground is unfavor- 

 able for its trailing. After all, is not this fashion bor- 

 rowed from the Eskimo ? There is often an approach 

 towards this prolongation in the men's jackets, espe- 

 cially when made of deer skin, but never so long as 

 on the woman's. Neither do little girls have a long 

 train to the jacket ; but as soon as they arrive at the 

 age when they are no longer looked upon as children, 

 they learn to imitate their mothers. There are never 

 any pockets in the jackets of either sex, the hood 

 serving for this purpose. 



The pants of the men are made from the same 

 material as the coat, with the exception that the young 

 seal in the white coat is often used for the outer as 

 well as the inner garment. The pants reach only to 

 the upper part of the pelvis, and are kept up by means 

 of a string around the body. They reach a little be- 

 low the knee, where they are met by the boots. When 

 made of deer skin, they are usually ornamented by 

 fringes of cut skin around the lower edges. 



The women's pants differ from the men's in being 

 composed of two separate pieces, the lower reaching 

 from a little below the knee to the middle of the thigh, 

 and are kept in place by a string which runs to the 

 upper edge of the other portion. The lower portion 

 of these pantaloons is removed while they are at work 

 in their igloos, and the bare thigh used, as a board 

 would be, to lay the seal skin on while cleaning the 

 blubber from it. The women have the habit of thrust- 

 ing their hands between the upper and lower panta- 

 loons the same as we do in a pocket ; in fact, they use 

 this space as a sort of pocket. 



'Little girls wear their breeches like the men till 

 they get to be ten or twelve years of age. Very small 

 children are dressed in a fawn-skin jacket without at- 

 tached hood; but their heads are, nevertheless, well 

 bundled up in a double fawn-skin hood that fits the 

 scalp closely. This hood is never removed, except 

 perchance by accident, till the child outgrows it. The 

 lower extremities are usually not clad at all. 



The children are carried on the mother's back in- 

 side her jacket. The cut of the jacket is such that 

 the child goes down as far as the mother's waist, when 

 the closeness of the jacket prevents it going any far- 

 ther. The hood allows the child freedom for its arms 

 and head, but the legs are cramped underneath its 

 body, and this is probably one cause of bow-legged- 

 ness and possibly the shortness of the lower extremi- 

 ties. I have seen the Eskimo mother, with a child 

 fast asleep in her hood, building a toopik. This work 

 often necessitated her stooping over so much as to 

 seemingly endanger the dumping of the infant over 

 her head on the ground ; still, it did not seem to in- 

 convenience the child in the least as it slept soundly 

 through the whole proceeding. 



The kdmik, or, as generally pronouncea, humming, 

 or boots, are principally made from the skins of adult 

 Pagomys foztidus, with the hair off, the soles being 

 made from the skin of Phoca barbata. For Winter 

 wear a very beautiful and serviceable boot is made 

 from the skin of reindeer legs sewed together length- 

 wise ; they are used only in dry snow, being quite use- 

 less when the snow is wet. Another style of boot is 

 to have the leg of netsick skin, but with the hair on. 

 These boots reach nearly to the knee, and are kept 

 in place by means of a string around the top, and also 

 secured by a seal-skin cord passing over the instep 

 and around the heel. They are generally sewed with 

 sinews from reindeer; but for boots the sinews from 

 the dorsal vertebrae of Beluga catodon are preferred 

 when they can be procured. 



The stocking worn next to the foot is of heavy rein- 

 deer skin, the hair side next the foot; they reach 

 above the knee. Over the stocking is worn a sort of 

 slipper made from the eider-duck. The bird is skinned 

 by making an incision on the back near one wing ; 

 through this opening the body is removed. The skin 

 is cleaned of the fat by the Eskimo's teeth, and the 

 skin farther prepared by chewing it. The tail-feathers 

 are removed, and this end becomes the toe of the 

 slipper, the feather side being worn inside. Its upper 

 edges are bound with some kind of skin to give it ad- 

 ditional strength, and if the entire slipper is covered 

 with cloth will last a long time. They are very warm 

 and comfortable. Larus glaucus is often used for this 

 purpose. For children they use Uria grylle and Rissa 

 tridactylus skins. Over all this is worn another slip- 

 per made from the netsick skin, with the hair on, and 

 the hair side worn outward and the hair pointing from 

 the toe backwards. This very much facilitates the 

 drawing on of the boot. 



For summer wear the young of the netsick in the 

 woolly coat is substituted for reindeer for the stock- 

 ings. Dog skin is also sometimes used for stockings, 

 but not so commonly among the Cumberland Eskimo 

 as among those of Hudson's Straits, who use dog 

 skins for pants as well as stockings. 



