3380 Fauna of Western Eskimaux-land. 



of Europe. The skin serves as the inner coat of the Eskimaux, and 

 surpasses all others in softness and warmth. 



Remains of the antediluvian elephant are embedded in alluvial clay 

 in several places along the coast. In Kotzebue's Sound was found the 

 long black hair, together with a quantity of light brown dust, evidently 

 decomposed animal matter. "The fossils are sometimes of great size; 

 in 1848, eight tusks of the mammoth were collected, the largest of 

 which, though broken at the point, was 11 feet 6 inches in length, 1 

 foot 9 inches in circumference at the base, and weighed 243 lbs. Mo- 

 lar teeth, thigh-bones, ribs, and other fragments of the elephant, toge- 

 ther with a number of horse and deer bones, were disinterred ; the 

 whole emitting that peculiar smell encountered in burial-places."* 



Of the whole Fauna perhaps no animal is better adapted to the 

 country, or more useful to the inhabitants, than the reindeer {Cervus 

 Tarandus). From its skin, clothing and tents are made; from its 

 bones, arrow-heads, &c. ; and from its sinews, bow-strings, thread, 

 &c; while its flesh forms a most nutritious food. The teeth are 

 used as ornaments by the women, and the horns converted into han- 

 dles and the heads of darts. The reindeer is migratory, proceeding 

 to the northward when the snow melts, and returning southward when 

 the frosts of winter render the Arctic steppes uninhabitable. The 

 migrations southward extend little beyond Norton Sound. The rein- 

 deer are very tenacious of life, and, unless hit in a vital part, they are 

 not even stopped in their career by a musket-ball. The hunter some- 

 times exhausts his whole quiver of arrows before he secures his prey. 

 There is, however, a quicker method of attaining the end. The na- 

 tives make a semicircular pound, of stakes driven into the ground, 

 and affix to it nooses of walrus-hide ; the animals are at first gently 

 driven towards them, and then, frightened by loud outcries, they rush 

 headlong to destruction. 



Porpoises are seldom seen, but they seem to be replaced by wdiite 

 whales, which are a little larger. In June and the beginning of July 

 they are taken in considerable numbers ; during the rest of the sum- 

 mer they are not approachable. There are, besides, the Greenland 

 whale, the spittle-back, and the finner. Many whale-ships have been 

 attracted in consequence, and they number as many as a hundred. 

 Each vessel is capable of containing about 3,500 barrels of oil; and 

 as whales generally yield from 40 to 50 barrels each, it is necessary 

 to capture at least 85 to obtain a full cargo. The effect of this slaugh- 



*M. B. Scemann's Private Journal. 



