Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-11-01
AMONG THE ESKIMO.
Their Principal Food-Cheerless Homes
Great Physical Endurance.

Great Physical Endurance.
The walrus forms the principal food of
the Eskimo race wherever it is found, and
it is so generally distributed over the Arc
tic part of the North American continent
that it undoubtedly makes up the bulk of
sustenance for the whole race, with the
various seals following closely behind,
and both these kinds of meats amply sup
plemented by salmon, cod, whale, musk
oxen, reindeer and polar bear, with an oc-
casional tribe here and there preponderat-
ing in some of these latter foods over the
walrus and seal. The walrus will not live
where it is so cold that all the water
channels are frozen over in the winter, as
he cannot cut breathing hole through
the thick ice like the smaller hair seal,
which is found in about every part of the
Arctic that man has penetrated, and at
about all seasons Of the year. The greater
amount of fatty tissue in the animals of
the sea make them more acceptable as
food to the northerner, whose system
Graves such diet during the rigorous win
ter Of that zone.
The seal and walrus are fat throughout
the year, although varying appreciably in
this respect during the different seasons,
while the reindeer-for musk oxen are
nowhere numerous enough to enter largely
as food-are only in good condition for q
few months in the fall and early winter,
the coldest months in the year, January,
February and March, often finding them
ivid in their leanness.
Yet, in spite of all this, my northern
travels threw me in contact with O fair
sized tribe Of Eskimo that lived largely
on this kind of meat, catching only enough
seal from an inlet that cut deep into their
country to supply their stone lamps with
little light during the long dark winter
night. Those living on seal and walrus
had enough oil to warm their houses
though made of snow-many degrees
higher than the intense cold outside, and
would take off their outside suit of rein
deer clothes when in the house, while tho
reindeer hunters seldom had a tempera-
ture even q little above that of the at
mosphere outside, and often remained
double clothed as if in the open.
Their homes were cold and cheerless in
the extreme, but they had powers of re-
sisting it that seemed phenomenal and
far beyond human endurance as we have
found it limited in our own zone. have
known one of these cold weather cavaliers
to take reindeer hide that had been soak
ing in the water, and that was frozen as
stiff as plate of boiler iron, and put it
against his bare body, holding it there,
not only until it was thawed out, but
until it was perfectly dry. The skin was
to be used as a drum head for singing and
dancing exercises, and had to be dry and
hairless to answer that purpose, the soak
ing ridding it of the hair, while there
were apparently no other means of dry
ing it than the heroic method adopted.
From the large number Of reindeer killed
by these Eskimo they are abundantly sup
piled with skins for bedding and clothing,
and in the making up of these necessaries
they have displayed so much tact and
talent with the limited means at hand
that they are the best dressed natives in
the north.-Frederick G. Schwatka in
American Magazine