In enumerating the articles of their food, we might, perhaps, give a
list of every animal inhabiting these regions, as they certainly will,
at times, eat any one of them. Their principal dependance, however, is
on the reindeer (_t=o=okto~o_); musk-ox (_=o=om~ingm~uk_),
in the parts where this animal is found; whale (_=agg~aw~ek_);
walrus (_=ei-~u-~ek_); the large and small seal (_=og~uke_ and
_n~eitiek_); and two sorts of salmon, the _=ew~ee-t=ar~oke_
(_salmo alpinus?_) and _ichl=u~ow~oke_. The latter is taken by
hooks in fresh-water lakes, and the former by spearing in the shoal
water of certain inlets of the sea. Of all these animals, they can only
procure in the winter the walrus and small seal upon this part of the
coast; and these at times, as we have seen, in scarcely sufficient
quantity for their subsistence.
They certainly, in general, prefer eating their meat cooked, and, while
they have fuel, they usually boil it; but this is a luxury, and not a
necessary to them. Oily as the nature of their principal food is, yet
they commonly take an equal proportion of lean to their fat, and, unless
very hungry, do not eat it otherwise. Oil they seldom or never use in
any way as a part of their general diet; and even our butter, of which
they were fond, they would not eat without a due quantity of
bread.
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