Sept. 13, 1902.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
^08 
moderate sunburn to a much deeper brown. Where the 
skin is not exposed, however, it is apparently as white 
or rosy as that of a white man. 
The women closely resemble the men in tlieit feStui^s. 
Their black hair is done up in a coil on the head. Most 
of them now wear skirts, especially when strangers are 
about, though some of them still cling to deerskin trous- 
ers. One feature of their original dress that they still 
retain, and that serves by its different form to distin- 
guish the men from the women, is the jacket or attigi. 
It is a loose garment, furnished with a hood for both 
sexes. It is cut square across at the bottom for the men, 
but for the women ends below in a curve or tail both 
in front and behind, the rear appendage being much the 
longer. The hood is often bordered with fur, and in the 
case of the women bears more or less elaborate orna- 
mentation. These garments were doubtless made orig- 
inally entirely of fur, but this has now been supplanted, 
in summer at least, by a white, thick, flannel-like cloth 
supplied by the missionaries. The hood of the women 
serves not only as a head protection, but also as a con- 
venient receptacle for the babies. 
These people are of an essentially sanguine tempera- 
nient. Of course, they differ mucl'a from one another 
individually, but there are many traits that are true of 
them in general. They are naturally cheerful, merry, and 
'ight-hearted. They are fond of song and music, and 
have some skill in its production. They seem to be 
often joking together; are jovial and good-natured, with 
a well developed sense of humor. These sunny qualities 
give place at times to darker moods. Quarrels may 
arise; stealing may occur, though it is rare; murder 
may be committed, but Mr. Ford, of Nachvak, has 
known of the occurrence of only three cases. Their 
emotions are apparently not deepl}' seated or persistent 
leyond the immediate presence of the exciting cause, 
riiey are almost always honest and peaceable, and 
friendly to the stranger. Warfare is, almost un- 
known among them. They naturally resent injury, 
is when, as too often happens, the Newfoundland 
ishermen encroach upon their fishing grounds or steal 
their wood for huts; but they rarely resort to violence, 
ind when this occurs it is usually under the lead of some 
one with white blood in his veins. They have an excel- 
ent reputation for industry, are active, quick and endur- 
ng. Whenever we employed them, we found them wili- 
ng and eager. They lay "by little for the future. When 
:hey have plenty they are pretty sure to be generous, 
ind a good hunter will support sometimes several fam- 
Hes, the rest being content to live lazily by the exer- 
ions of the one. They can be just as greedy as they arc 
jenerous, when circumstances are difierent. They have 
i good average degree of intelligence — a high degree, 
t would seem, when one considers the few solicitations 
lO thought and ingenuity in their environment; but 
their intelligence is combined naturally with a great deal 
of superstition. They are easily led, and their special 
;haracter and actions depend much on the nature of 
[heir leader. Yet they rarely have any sort of govern- 
nent, but live together in tribal amity with no chief or 
■uler unless one temporarily arises by virtue of his own 
musual gifts of wealth or wit. Where their primitive 
deas are not weeded out by the missionaries, however, 
hey are largely in subjection to their medicine men or 
sorcerers. 
Where missionary influences prevail the marital rela- 
:ions of the Eskimos are of the conventional civilized 
type, and their sexual morality is of a high order. But 
urther north they vary much, each doing- much as he 
ikes and can. One man may have three or four Avives; 
ind at least one case is known where two men have one 
A'ife in common. 
The life of the Eskimos is one of hunting and fish- 
ng. They live principally on a meat diet, consisting 
rhiefly of seal, whale, caribou and fish. Berries are al- 
iiost their only natural vegetable food, though now they 
3btain also flour and bread with considerable ease. For- 
nerly they did little cooking, but now the introduction 
3f civilized kettles makes it easier. Thej^ place their 
nain reliance on the seal, and it is hard to imagine how 
;hey could continue to get along without it. It gives 
hem food, dog meat, clothing, boots, tents, dog traces 
md harpoon lines, fuel tor light and heat. They have 
ittle in the way of implements and possessions except 
■;uch as are needed for their hunting and fishing, tor 
;lothing, shelter and food. Once they lived very crudely, 
with no implements except of stone, of bone and of 
skins, no fuel except seal oil, and no domestic animals 
xcept their magnificent dogs. One still finds in old 
graves specimens of these cruder implements formerly 
n use. But a hundred years of contact with the white 
nan have given them many of his utensils and methods. 
A. few useful articles remain much as in the days be- 
ore they knew the white man and his ways. C3ne of 
hese is the kayak, a rapid and seaworthy canoe made 
if skin, entirely decked over except for the round hole 
n the middle in which its one occupant sits. Another 
s their remarkable harppon, whose barb detaches itself 
rom the handle when the animal is hit, and, being at- 
ached to a float and drag, prevents the escape of tiieir 
game. Still a third is the komatik, or dog sledge, in 
ivhich the only important change has been the substitu- 
:ion of iron runners for those of wood, bone or frozen 
niud formerly in use; though runners of ivory or whale- 
bone are also still used. 
Most of the Eskimos now live in small communities 
of not more than three or four hundred about the mis- 
sion stations or posts of the Hudson's Bay Compan3^ 
Usually their crude houses are of wood covered over on 
he inside with turf; though in some places they are en- 
tirely of wood. In former times their central dweUing 
was constructed of walrus or whale bones covered over 
with skins, or of an underground excavation, or of a 
halt-underground, half-over ground framework of stones 
covered with turf. One still sees remnants of such 
structures. They often leave these more permanent 
dwellings, however, and go off, in the summer for fish- 
ing, in the winter for hunting or sealing. It is only 
on these occasions that they now use their snow houses 
in winter, and in summer their skin topeks or canvas 
tents. 
The conditions of their life, with the continual neces- 
sity of warm clothing and shelter, and the difficulties of 
obtaining warm water and soap, naturally render impos- 
sible any large degree of cleanliness. Yet they tolerate 
a rather nnnecessary amount of filth and refuse in and 
around their dwellings, which, with their utter disregard 
of ventilation, while less offensive and less deleterious 
to their health than the same conditions would be in a 
warmer climate, are nevertheless harmful to a consider- 
able extent. 
Many of them liave considerable skill in making carv- 
ings of the ivory of walrus tusks. They do not, how- 
ever, possess the fine feeling for ornamentation and fin- 
ish shown by their Alaska kinsmen. This, together 
with their music, seems to be their only art. Their 
language is highly polysynthctic, single words of com- 
plex structure taking the place of whole sentences. 
There is a remarkable similarity in its dialects every- 
where, from Siberia to Greenland. They differ hardly 
more from each other than do English and broad Scotch 
(Keane, "Man, Past and Present," 1899), in spite of the 
separation of some of the tribes from each other for 
perhaps thousands of years. 
Wild Animals of the North. 
From Richardson's "Fauna Boreali-Americana; or the Zoology of 
the Northern Parts of British America." 
Moose. 
Dr. Richardson has much to say about the moose, but 
his article consists very largely of quotations from earlier 
authors. The names moose and elk, current in North 
America, had already created confusion among writers of 
the Old World, who did not realize that the moose was 
nearly related to the elk of Europe, while the elk of 
America was really the Canada stag, known to the Indians 
as wapiti. Dr. Richardson speaks of the moose as found 
as far north as the shores of the Arctic Sea, in the Mac- 
kenzie Delta, in latitude 69 degrees. He speaks also of 
the Indian method of moose hunting, practiced particular- 
ly by the Crees, "who take to themselves the credit of be- 
ing able to instruct the hunters of every other tribe. 
This is the method described by Mr. D. M. Barringer, in 
one of the books of the Boone and Crockett Club, some 
years ago. He speaks also of the gentleness of the 
young, who are captured without difficulty, and quotes 
Hearns as saying, "The moose is the easies't to tame and 
domesticate of any of the deer kind." 
Cariboo. 
Of the barren ground caribou. Richardson speaks at 
great length, and so interestingly that it seems worth 
while to quote his article in full. While these remarks 
arc familiar to students of mammals, to sportsmen at 
large they are not so: 
'This variety of reindeer is of small stature, and weighs 
so little, that I have seen a Canadian voyager throw a 
full-grown doe on his shoulders and carrv it as an English 
butcher would a sheep. The bucks are of larger size, &nd 
weigh, exclusive of the offal, when in good condition, 
from 90 to I-30 pounds. The old males have in general 
the largest and most horns, while the young ones and the 
females have them less branched and more cylindrical 
and pointed; but this is not uniformly the case, and the 
variety of forms assumed by the horns of the caribou is 
indeed so great, that it is difficult to comprehend them 
all in a general description. Some have the branches and 
extremities broadly palmated, and set round with finger- 
like points ; others have them cylindrical, and even taper- 
ing, without any palmated portion whatever. The ma- 
jori^^ of adult males have a brow antler, in form of a 
broad vertical plate running down betwixt the eyes, and 
hanging over the nose. In some, this plate springs from 
the right horn, in others from the left ; in many there is a 
plate from each side, and in a considerable number it is 
altogether Avanting; the plate is in general widest at its 
extremity, and is set with four or five points, which are 
sometimes recurved. The main stem of the horns also 
exhibits an endless variety in its thickness, altitude and 
curvature. During the growth of the horns they are 
covered with a hairy skin, which is soft and velvety to the 
touch, and in an early stage their interior consists of 
a substance which has the flavor of marrow, and re- 
sembles it much in appearancg, but has a finer consistence, 
and is furnished with more conspicuous blood vessels. 
The horns become indurated as they increase in size, and 
when they have attained their full growth, their velvety 
covering shrivels and peels off in ragged filaments. This 
takes place in the males in September, previous to the 
commencement of the rutting season, and bv the end of 
November most of the old bucks have shed their horns. 
The young males retain theirs much longer, and the 
females do not lose their horns until they are about to 
drop their young in the month of May. Hearne observes 
that the barren ground caribou bears horns twice the 
size of those of the woodland variety, notwithstanding 
that the latter is a mnch larger animal. 
"In the month of July the caribou sheds its winter 
covering, and acquires a short, smooth coat of hair, of a 
color composed of clove-brown, mingled with deep red- 
dish and yellowish browns ; the under surface of the neck, 
the belly, and the inner sides of the extremities remain- 
ing white in all seasons. The hair at first is fine and 
flexible, but as it lengthens it increases gradually in diam- 
eter at its roots, becoming at the same time white, soft, 
compressible, and brittle, like the hair of the moose-deer. 
In the course of the winter the thickness of the hairs at 
their roots becomes so great that they are exceedingly 
close, and no longer lie down smoothly, but stand erect, 
and they are then so soft and tender below, that the 
flexible, colored points are easilv rubbed off, and the fur 
appears white, especially at the 'flanks. This occurs in a 
smaller degree on the back; and on the under parts the 
hair, although it acquires length, remains more flexible 
and slender at its roots, and is consequently not so sub- 
ject to break. Toward the .spring, when the deer are 
tormented by the larvse of the gadfly making their way 
through the skin, they rub themselves against stones and 
rocks, until all the colored tops of their hair are worn 
off, and their fur appears to be entirely of a soiled white 
color. 
"The closeness of the hair of the caribou, and the light- 
ness of its skin, when properly dressed, renders it the 
most appropriate article for winter clothing in the high 
latitudes. The skins of the young deer make the best 
dresses, and they should be killed for that purpose in the 
months of August and September, as after the latter 
date the hair becomes too long and brittle. The prime 
parts of eight or ten deer.skins make a complete suit of 
clothing for a grown person, which is so impervious to 
the cold, that, with the addition of a blanket of the same 
material, any one so clothed, may bivouack on the snow 
with safety, and even with comfort, in the most intense 
cold of an Arctic winter's night. The hoofs of this 
variety of reindeer are very large, and spread greatly; 
and the posterior or accessory ones make a loud clatter- 
ing noise when the animal runs. The forms of the latter 
are almost always visible in its footmarks, unless the 
ground be so hard that even the principal hoofs make 
little impression. 
"The barren ground caribou, which resort to the coast 
of the Arctic Sea, in summer, retire in winter to the 
.woods lying between the sixty-third and the sixty-sixth 
degree of latitude, where they feed on the Usnew, Elec- 
toricE and other hchens, which hang from the trees, and 
on the long grass of the swamps. About the end of April, 
when the partial melting of the snow has softened, the 
Cctraricc, Cornictilarue and Cenomyce's, which clothe the 
bar ren grounds like a carpet, they make short excursions 
from the woods, but return to them when the weather 
is frosty. In May the females proceed toward the sea 
coast, and toward the end of June the males are in full 
march in the same direction. At that period the power of 
the sun has dried up the lichens on the barren grounds, 
and the caribou frequent the moist pastures which cover 
the bottoms of the narrow valleys on the coasts and islands 
oi the Arctic Sea, where they graze on the sprouting 
carices, and on the withered grass or hay of the preceding 
j-ear, which is at that period still standing, and retaining 
part of its sap. Their spring journey is performed partly 
on the snow, and partly after the snow has disappeared, 
on the ice covering the rivers and lakes, which have, in 
general, a northerly direction. Soon after their arrival on 
the coast the females drop their young; they commence 
thejr return to the south in September, and reach the 
A^cinity of the woods toward the end of October, where 
th ey are joined by the males. This journey takes place 
after the snow has fallen, and they scrape it aAvay with 
their feet to procure the lichens, which are then tender 
and pulpy, being preserved moist and unfrozen by the 
heat still remaining in the earth. Except in the rut- 
ting season the bulk of the males and females live sepa- 
rately—the former retire deeper into the woods in the 
Avinter, while herds of the pregnant does stay on the 
skirts of the barren grounds, and proceed to the coast 
very early in .spring. Captain Parry saw deer on Mel- 
ville Peninsula as late as Sept. 23, and the females, with 
their fawns, made their first appearance on April 22. 
The males in general do not go so far north as the fe- 
males. On the coast of Hudson's Bay the barren ground 
caribou migrate further south than those on the Cop- 
permine or Mackenzie rivers ; but none of them go to 
the southward of Churchill. 
"The lichens, on Avhich the caribou principally feed 
while on the barren grounds, are the Cornicularia tristis, 
Divergcns and Ochrileuca, the Cetraria n-ivalis, Cucullata 
and Islandica, and the Cenomyce rangiferina. When in 
condition, there is a layer of fat deposited on the back 
and rump of the males to the depth of two or three inches 
or more, immediately under the skin, which is termed 
dcpouillc by the Canadian voyagers ; and as an article of 
Indian trade, it is often of more value than all the re- 
mainder of the carcass. The depouille is thickest at the 
commencement of the rutting season ; it then becomes of 
a red color, and acquires a high flavor, and soon after- 
ward disappears. The females at that period are lean; but 
in the course of the winter they acquire a small depouille, 
which is exhausted soon after they drop their young. 
The flesh of the caribou is very tender, and its flavor 
when in season is, in my opinion, superior to that of the 
finest English A^enison; but Avhen the animal is lean it is 
Aery insipid, the difference being greater between well- 
fed and lean caribou than any one can conceive who has 
not had an opportunity of judging. The lean meat fills 
the stomach, but never satisfies the appetite, and scarcely 
serves to recruit the strength Avhen exhau.sted by labor. 
The flesh of the moose deer and buffalo, on the other 
hand, is tough Avhen lean, but is never so utterly tasteless 
and devoid of nourishment as that of a caribou in poor 
condition. The Chipewyans, the Copper Indians, the Dog- 
ribs and Hare Indians of Great Bear Lake, would be 
totally unable to inhabit their barren lands Avere it not for 
the immense herds of this deer that exist there. Of the 
caribou horns they form their fish spears and hooks; and 
previous to the introduction of European iron, ice chisels 
and various other utensils Avere likeAvise made of them. 
The hide dressed with the fur is, as has been already 
mentioned, excellent for winter clothing, and supplies the 
place of both blanket and feather bed to the inhabitants 
of the Arctic Avilds. When subjected to the process de- 
scribed in the article on the moose deer, it forms a soft 
and pliable leather, adapted for moccasins and summer 
clothing, or when sixty or seventy skins are sewed to- 
gether, they make a tent sufficient for the residence of a 
large family. The shin bone of the deer, split so as to 
present a sharp edge, is the knife that is used to remove 
the hair in the process of making the leather. The un- 
dressed hide, after the hair is taken off, is cut into thongs 
of A-arious thickness, Avhich are twisted into deer snares, 
bowstrings, net lines, and, in fact, supply all the purposes 
of rope. The finer thongs are used in the manufacture 
of fishing nets or in working snoAVshoes; Avhile the 
tendons of the dorsal muscles are split into fine and excel- 
lent scAving thread, 
"Beside these and many other uses to Avhich the In- 
dians appropriate different parts of the caribou in their 
domestic economy, the animal u no less useful in the way 
of food. The hunter breaks the leg bones of a recently 
slaughtered deer, and while the marroAV is still warm de- 
vours it with much relish. The kidneys and part of the 
intestines, particularly the thin folds of the third stomach 
or many-plies, are likewise occasionally eaten Avhen raw, 
and the summits of the antlers as long as they are soft', 
are also delicacies in a raw state. The colon or large gut 
