1 8 Arctic and Antarctic Exploration [part i 
polar rivers are less numerous and of far less volume 
than those of Siberia, and for the tundras of Siberia are 
substituted the "barren lands" of North America, which 
are essentially different. The first consists of frozen earth 
and ice for an immense depth, the second of low granite 
and gneiss hills with rounded summits separated by 
narrow valleys. Except for limited deposits of imperfect 
peat-earth in the valleys, the surface of the " barren lands " 
consists of a dry coarse quartzose sand scattered over 
with granite boulders. The American Arctic coast is 
faced by islands, with narrow straits intervening, except 
for 800 miles to Bering Strait where it faces the heavy 
ice of the Polar Ocean. 
This American coast produces edible berries and roots, 
and on the land are musk oxen, reindeer, wolverines, 
wolves, foxes, martens, hares, and marmots. Salmon, 
with other fish, frequent the rivers, and many wading 
birds, besides ptarmigan and willow grouse, ducks, geese, 
and guillemots, come to breed. It is a Sub-arctic, not 
an Arctic region. The whole coast, for 1700 miles, 
affords the means of subsistence. 
Here the hardy little Eskimo race has dwelt for long 
ages, from the Aleutian peninsula to Hudson's Bay and 
Labrador. Their original position is supposed to have 
been the coast near Bering Strait, from Kotzebue Sound 
to the Colville river. They have preserved themselves, 
for generations, by their great faculty of obtaining sub- 
sistence by the most ingenious contrivances, and through 
hereditary skill and perseverance. Their tales and 
traditions go back for untold years, and with them have 
been transmitted those methods oi hunting and fishing 
which long practice, through many generations, has 
perfected. Living mainly on seals, their southern neigh- 
bours, the Algonquin Indians, gave these coast people 
the name of Askikamo or seal-eaters, whence our word 
Eskimo, but they call themselves Innuit. 
The American coast Eskimos have a dozen winter 
settlements, four of which are never altogether abandoned 
in the summer. They move about for purposes of 
bartering and trading, as well as for hunting and fishing ; 
but they have permanent settlements, like that at Point 
Barrow, with a population of 300 souls in 50 huts. These 
