134 
ESQUIMAUX HABITS. 
excessive. Tlie quantity which, the members of a 
family consume, exorbitant as it seems to a stranger, 
is rather a necessity of their peculiar life and organiza¬ 
tion than the result of inconsiderate gluttony. In 
active exercise and constant exposure to cold the waste 
of carbon must he enonnous. 
When in-doors and at rest, tinkering over their ivory 
harness-rings, fowl-nets, or other household-gear, they 
eat as we often do in more civilized lands—for animal 
enjoyment and to pass away time. But when on the 
hunt they take hut one meal a day, and that after the 
day’s labor is over; they go out upon the ice without 
breakfast, and, except the “cold cuts,” which I confess 
are numerous, eat nothing until their return. I would 
average the Esquimaux ration in a season of plenty— 
it is of course a mere estimate, hut I believe a perfectly 
fair one—at eight or ten pounds a day, with soup and 
water to the extent of half a gallon. 
At the moment of my visit, when returning plenty 
had just broken in upon their famine, it was not 
wonderful that they were hunting with avidity. The 
settlements of the South seek at this season the liunt- 
ing-ground above, and, until the seals begin to lorm 
their basking-holes, some ten days later, the walrus is 
the single spoil. 
I incline to the opinion that these animals frequent 
the half-broken ice-margin throughout the year; for, 
after the season has become comparatively open, they 
are still found in groups, with their young, disporting 
in the leads and shore-water. They are, of course, 
