Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1885-07-23

From the Independently
SUMMER LIFE IN THE
LAND OF THE ESKIMO.
BY LIEUT.. FREDERICK scHwArKA, U. s. A.


As the heated term comes on, anc
people who can are seeking the cooler
Summer resorts, how many of them, i
l am to judge by the remarks hear
wish for a little Arctic weather, ol
desire that some easy method OF trave
could be inaugurated to transport
them to that cline, or near it; and yet
could one suddenly find himself in the
land of the Eskimo, he would hear
the common plsint of "0I O-kO-u
ad-lor' as often as he hears the Eng.
lish equivalent here, Warm! Very
warml" For, after all, heat and cold
are only relative, and the poor Eskimo,
emerging from his long, wearisome
Winter, with the thermometer at fifty,
sixty, and even seventy below zero, as
often as we see it freezing in our cli-
mate, finds the Spring temperature
long before the snow and ice commence
to melt, as uncomfortsbly warm To
him as we do with the thermometer
crawling up into the seventies or
eighties. After all, we are too liable
to Judge everybody In every cline by
our own narrow surroundings; and
when the Eskimo or Lapp is complain
ing of the heat, with ice forming on
the water, or the Hottentot or Bed
ouins complaining of the cold. with
the thermometer hundred degrees
higher, we are liable to surmise affec-
tation among people with whom it is
unknown. Even in this Arctic country
alone, we see that this appreciation of
heat and cold is only relative compared
with the surroundings, without flying
to other land for examples. After
their short Summer is over, and the
first snaps of Winter are coming on, |
have often seen them hugging up to
the little stone lamp, warming their
fingers and blue pinched noses, with
EXPLANATIONS of "lk-keel H-keei" (cold!
coldD when the ice was just forming
on the fresh water ponds; and again, l
have seen my Eskimo dog-drivers and
sledgemen, on still. quiet Februrry
day, the thermometer indicating Al
Fahrenheit, working in harness to
help the remaining dogs that had not
starved through the Winter on our
long edge-journeys; up steep hill,
with a southern SLOPE stop many
times, wipe their brows, and complain
of the heat. So, after all, we may be
prepared to believe that the Summer
life of the Eskimo is as uncomfortably
warm to them as ours is with us, de-
spite the fact that our coolest Summer
resorts would add fame to their al
ready heavy burden Of heat.
So short are tue Arctic sea sons of
Spring and Fall that some Polar
travellers deny their existence, the
Summer following the Winter with a
suddenness that sweeps the wintry
SHOWS from the ground and starts the
hardy Alpine plants into blossom, as
if an earthquake or great convulsion
of Nature had thrown the Arctic re-
gions-under the Equator, as abruptly
as those terrestrial forces usually
work; and again the Summer is merg-
ed into the Winter as quickly as a
person would change, climbing to the
top of Mexican mountain, from
tropical luxuriance to snow, Ice and
glaciers.
The Eskimo among whom my
travels were cast had two distinctive
methods of living in their two seasons
of Summer and Winter; she former
being in tents made of skins, and the
latter in egg shaped houses of snow.
And to their life while in the former
we will devote ourselves. AS soon as
the warm weather is usbered in, and
the round domed snow houses COM
mence showing signs of decay under
the advancing heat, the opof one or two
having, probably, tumbled In on the
inmates, the Eskimo lord of creation
closely watches the ridges and hilltops,
especially on the southern slopes, and
as soon as they peep through the Win
ter's covering of snow, and spot is
found large enough to pitch his skin
tent and give him a dry floor, that
very day he will abandon his stumbled-
in snow-house, and take up his abode
for the Summer in the tent. Let us
take look at this primitive tent OF no
great dimensions, covering ground
about six feet by six, and made entire.
ly of native material. A Lole of wood
is made, about seven feet long, and
T on the top, about two fee. long, is
there lashed. This gives the "spread"
to the tent at the rear, while pole
about six feet high, without any top
slat, holds up the tent in front, the
ridgepole between the two being the
material of the tent itself From the
7 the tent slopes out at an angle of
forty-ive degrees, while huge stones
are piled on its edge to serve the duty
Of tent pins; for all the land around
north Hudson's Bay is almost solid
granite rock. The rear half of the
tent is made of undressed seal skins, as
dark and Opaque as so much black
cloth; but the front half is made of
split walrus skin, so thin and trans.
li1cant that IL admits lioht ahout nc