The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1885-12-22
Tho Eskimo,s Appetite.

The Eskimo's Appetite. 4
Tho Eskimo seer to have a conve-
ntcatappetite; theycan go without food
for long periods, or eat five or six
timco a day. just as they happen to
t:avc il. They are ~improvident of
fool end do not begin to lay in thelr
winter supply ofttimes until it is too
late, when they suffer from lack of 1t
and appeal to the Governor. who
obliges them to give him a tithing,
which is left in reserve. 1t is said
that were it not for this supervision
during severe winters, the natives
would 0 become extinct from star
walton. l have never seen a native
eat more than what I estimated as five
pounds of seal meat and blubber at. a
meal, though 1 have read of ten or fit.
teen pounds being a not unusual con.
sumption at M sitting. They eat
but twice a day as a regular habit, be-
fore going to bed and almost as soon
as they awake. From my limited OBJ.
servation, I would say that an adult
consumes about eight pounds Of solid
food a day, subject to variations, &C.
cording to the amount of exercise and
the external temperature. The small
quantities of tea. coffee and flour con.
sumed at a meal scarcely require men
ton as factors in the food supply. The
natives live in a temperature with a
yearly average closely bordering on
zero Fahrenheit. Their food is almost
wholly animal. They are provided
with small skin boats or kyaks, which
are very light. but of great strength.
and can be transported with great ia.
cility over the ice to open water.
These boats have the javelin or spear
as part of the outfit, and the Eskimo
from early youth is trained to manage
the kyak and throw the spear, so that
they become exceedingly expert, and il
is seldom that the hunter goes out in
season without returning with his
game. The Eskimo. on seeing a seal
come to the surface for air, will, with
a few strokes of the paddle, approach
as near as possible; when the seal dis.
appears beneath the surface a few
quiet, rapid strokes put the kyak di.
rectly over the spot, then with his jaw
elm poised he waits for the seal to re.
appear; should the head show itself
above water within a distance Of ten
or fifteen feet, their aim is almost I'm.
erring. After the seal is struck, the
head of the javelin is slipped off, and
to it are attached about six fathoms Of
line. on to which II large bladder float
is tied. The line and bladder are i'm.
mediately cast into the water, and the
seal carries them off until he is ex-
hausted, then the line is hauled in and
the seal at the end q ietly dispatched
with a small knife; not always quietly,
however, for a large seal when wound.
cd will often show fight, and wreck
the kyak. The loss of life attending the
hunt is quite considerable. as the frail
skin boats are ofttimes cut through
by the ice or swamped in rough water;
the hands of the hunter are necessarily
exposed, and many of them suffer
from their being frozen during severe
weather. They procure their fish by
dexterously using a short line and at
tacaing a small ivory hook to it. They
bob this up and down through a hole
in the ice, and the unsuspecting fish
that bite are thrown out on the ice;
they have NJ system of netting.-Dr
e. b. Green I'm Medical News.