411 
closely resembled the luinting of seals at those seasoiisd What 
most concerns us liere is that the dependence of the Eskimo on sea 
mammals, particularly seals, throu^!:hout the greater i)art of the year 
differentiated them from all the Indian tribes of America, but tliat 
their methods of hunting them, however ingeiuous, were after all 
only modifications of fishing methods, and of methods of hunting 
land animals, that were common to both peoples. 
The Itlskimo could not employ all the methods of fishing and 
hunting known to their Indian neighbours. They could organize 
community drives against the cai-ibou. herding them into the water 
in order to spear them from their canoes, or between lanes of dummy 
enemies made of turf-cap])ed stones that converged in a row of 
archers concealed in shallow pits; but, except in certain parts of 
Alaska,- where willow and other shrubs attained a considerable 
height, they could not snare them in pounds as was the practice 
of the Athapaskan Indians. Neither could they spear fish by torch- 
light after the manner of many Indian tribes, not so much from 
lack of bark for torches, as because there was no darkness during the 
summer when the lakes and rivers were free of ice. Weirs of stones 
took the place of brush weirs, and instead of basket traps, for which 
material would have been scanty, one or two groups used bags of 
skin.® Why no Eskimo ever employed fish-nets, however, is rather 
puzzling, for all their Indian neighbours used them, and their intro- 
duction in post-European times has been an unmixed blessing. 
Their absence was the more surprising because of the remarkable 
ingenuity of the Eskimo in other ways, and because of the rapidity 
with which they have adopted all civilized appliances that can help 
them in their food-quest. 
We have mentioned their remarkable ingenuity, and have 
noticed some examples of it in their methods of hunting the sea 
mammals. It revealed itself also in their transportation methods, 
their dwellings, and even in their dress. Confronted with a similar 
environment other primitive peoples might have evolved a stable 
1 In whale huntinjz, they fjenerally employed llie large, open, f^kin boat with a eonipiemeut of paddteis 
instead of the one-man kayak. 
2 e.g. the basin of Cblville river. 
3 Birket-Smith : Op. cit., vol. 1, p. 120. 
4 Mathias-sen (" Archffiologj’ of the Central Eskimos,’' vol. ii, p. f) eonsiders the e\ ideiiue for rise 
complete absence of the fish-net in pre-European tunes not altogether coticlu.sive. 
0 We can understand more ea.sily why they did not doinestieafe the carilioii or Ameriean reindeer; 
for it is fairly certain that whatever north .\.siatio tribe fir.st domesticated that animal was already 
acquainted with domesticated horses and probably cattle. 
