174 GRINNELL 



with dried, stretched hides of walrus and the great seal. 

 These houses are warm and comfortable, but of course 

 close and smoky. As soon as the weather grows warm 

 in spring the people move into the summer houses and 

 pull the roofs off the winter ones, sometimes taking down 

 the sods as well, so that the interior of the winter houses 

 may be exposed to sun and wind, and may dry. 



All through the village, on poles and frames, hung the 

 various property of the inhabitants — deer skins, some of 

 them of the domesticated Siberian reindeer obtained 

 by trade from the Chukchis of the adjacent interior, 

 others of the caribou or wild reindeer of the American 

 coast; on drying frames were spread the skins of seals 

 and walruses, while scattered all about were seal nets, 

 inflated seal bladders, the inflated complete skins of seals, 

 turned inside out and drying — to be used as walrus floats, 

 or perhaps as oil cans, or perhaps merely as sacks in which 

 to transport property. Standing or hanging against the 

 sides of the houses were harpoons, spears, and paddles; 

 seal nets made of slender strips of rawhide — sealskin 

 — while between the posts, all about the village, were 

 stretched great lengths of seal and walrus hide, cut into 

 slender lines, to be used for making dog harness, for lines 



to be attached to the harpoon 

 when hunting, and in mak- 

 ing seal nets. Three or 

 four bone frames were seen, 

 formed of the curved ribs of 

 the whale, which reminded 

 one somewhat of one of the 

 Plains sweathouses. Under 



ESKIMO MAN AND WOMAN, PLOVER BAY. i r ,y .■> ■, -, 



each one of these there had 

 been a fire, and under one the fire was still burning and a 

 pot was boiling over it. 



It was apparent that this village had been occupied for a 



