Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-09-01
Gales aud Sketfhes.
WINTER LIFE IN THE LAND OF THE
ESKIMO.
By LIEUT.. FREDERICK SCHwATKA.

The winter life of the American Arctic
native, or Eskimo. is much more interest
ing than his summer existence. which par
takes SO much of the general life of saw
ages with few uninterestlng changes,
while in the winter time We have mode
of life so radically different from that of
any other people. bv their peculiar en-
vironment. that the first travellers among
them to describe these strange details
were looked upon as Munchausens of the
greatest breadth of imagination. Houses
OF ice and snow, the very last thing in the
world that person would take 10 make a
comfortable abode anywhere, we're re-
puted to be their winter habitations. They
lived on raw frozen meat in a temperature
where it would be agony to any one else
not to have their meal hot and steaming ;
and so on through all the social economy,
leading perfect life OF polar paradoxes.
By most ethnOlogists it has been claimed
that this strange nation found itself in its
frigid land as result OF national weak
ness, crowded to the wall' as it were by
superior races. and that wall wall of
ceaseless ice. am firm believer in the
opposite, or that the Eskimo finds in the
north his most congenial cline, and we
find to corroborate this the perfect content
ment of the people with their country,
their hesitation in leaving it for however
short visit. their longings to return when
absent many other reasons show that they
are naturally natives of the north land by
their own choice and not that of others.
They are no more held to the rim of the
cherries Arctic Sea by other races than
are the musk-oxen by the buffalo. or the
polar bear by the grizzly. That they are
more than satisfied with their cold country
and its phenomenal low temperatures is
amply shown, think. in their preference
for their winter life over that of the SUM-
mer. although their struggle for an exist
ence is much harder then. as viewed from
our point of hardships. in the terrible ex-
posture and oft-recurring famines, for
which they seem to care but little. Now
let us take look at that winter life in the
light of one who has lived an Eskimo tor
over two years among them. for everyone
will admit that some additional light is
needed, so little do they have in the winter
season.
A few premonitory frosts commence in
the Arctic fall, generally followed by a
clustering northern storm of snow and
sleet, and then with a sharp snap the
thermometer sinks to the minus twentes
and thirties, and the Arctic winter is upon
them. and as the schoolboy dialect would
have it. 'for keeps, too" This varied
from early September to late October IN
my travels, occurring on King Williams
Land at the former time in 1872 and in
North Hudson's Bay at the latter in 1873.
This sudden onslaught of the winter does
not drive them at once into their peculiar
houses of snow. glad as they would be,
however, to avail themselves of such an
abode; for the first SHOWS that fall are not
OF the right texture for this Arctic archi
lecture. Fully forty degrees below zero
must have been reached and a number of
fierce gales must have 'packed" down the
autumn snow before it is of the proper
consistency, or see-tu-u-ad-lo (heavy) as
the Eskimo call it, to be cut into the Gu
rions blocks or huge bricks of snow with
which they make their snow house Ggloo
of the Esfimo) looking so much like the
old fashioned pictures of bee-hves
with their oblate shape. Their skin
tents are altogether too cold to live
comfortable in them long before that
elIiC SViuto dtouhl, htiu tuC 1tICtlC CdI JcU-
ter is driven to another curious material
for building to keep out the bitter cold,
and that is the pure ice from the many
fresh water lakes and ponds with which
their country abOunds. When about SIX
inches thick they cut out slabs about the
size OF an ordinary house door, put them
upright on their ends. joining them edge
to edge. making little circular pen of
ice about 10 to Is feet in diameter, over
which they put the summer tent for a
roof. These houses of ice are as trans
parent as glass. if clear ice has been
formed. and when finished one can look
through and see what his or her neighbors
are doing without the trouble Of getting
down on his hands and knees and crawl
ing in to find out. These glass-like
houses thus completely kill all incentive
to gossip. as an essential element thereto,
ignorance of the person talked about. is
wanting. am pleased to add however,
that the malicious variety of this trait is
wholly unknown among these distant peo-
pie.
The house of ice, while warmer than a
skin tent, will not compare with one of
| snow, and as soon as this material is of
proper texture. an igloo or snow house is
constructed. will not dwell on the con-
struction OF the igtoo to any great extent,
further than saying it is the shape of a
half egg cut perpendicular to its axis, and
about six to eight inches thick in the
blocks. which are about 80 inches long by
half as wide. The most common errors
regarding the Eskimo snow house are,
that these big blocks are laid fat,
when they are really on their
longer edge. and that they form one
course above another. like we build
brick building. when. in fact, there is but
one course, spirally twisting around from
bottom to top. While the blocks are but
six to eight inches thick, the igloo is often
made four to five or even eight to ten times
as thick during very cold weather. by
banking OF loose snow thrown over it.
OF course the temperature cannot get
above freezing in these homes of hard
snow. or the structure will commence
melting and eventually tumble in; but it
must be remembered that a person can
soon get used to temperature Just few
degrees below freezing, and even be quite
comfortable. must say that after a per-
son has gotten thoroughly acclmated to
the outdoor winter life of the Arctic, a
temperature of 200 to $50 Fahrenheit is
every bit as comfortable as one of ZOE to