Here they must sojourn until the ice breaks from the shores of the coves and bays, enabling the hunters to procure seals from the sea. Along the shores one may often find camping sites of these poor wanderers searching through the day for food and at night camping under the lee of a wall of rock with little other covering than that worn during the day and this often soaked with spray or rain.
Improvidence and indolence result in the most cruel privations toward the end of winter. Many who are too weak and emaciated from lack of food to pursue the chase to gain a living starve before reaching the sea and are left to perish.
When the season is more advanced, and the weather warm enough, those who are industrious and provident enough to be the possessors of sealskin tents, move into them for the season.
The skin tent (Pl. XXXVII) is usually made of the skins of the largest square flipper seals, those too heavy for any other purpose or not necessary for other uses.
[ BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXVII]
ESKIMO TENT.
The number of skins necessary to form a tent varies with the size required. Generally as many as ten to fifteen are used, and such a tent will accommodate a good sized family.
The hair is seldom removed from the skin, which is simply stretched as it comes from the animal and freed from fat and fleshy particles. The edges are trimmed and a sufficient number of skins are sewed together to form a length for one side of the tent. The length of the individual skins makes the height of the tent. A similar width is prepared for the opposite side. The two pieces meet at the rear of the structure and are there tied to the poles. A separate piece forms the door and may be thrown one side when a person enters or goes out. The poles of the tent are arranged as follows: Two pairs of poles are joined near the ends with stout thongs and erected with the lower ends spread to the proper width, forming the ends of the tent, on which the ridgepole is laid. A single pole is now placed near each end of the ridgepole, resting on the upright pairs, to prevent lateral motion. Two more such braces are placed on each side and spread so as to give a somewhat rounded end to the tent. Near the middle of the ridgepole is a pair of shorter poles leaning against it to prevent the weight of the sides from bending the ridgepole. It will be seen that eleven poles are necessary to support a long tent, as the skins are very heavy. The skins and poles can be transported when the umiak is able to carry them.
In case of continued rains the skins are placed so as nearly to meet over the ridge and additional skins cover the space left between the edges. When the tent is to be taken down the two widths are folded over, each by itself, and then rolled into a compact bundle by beginning at each end and folding toward the center, leaving sufficient space between the rolls for a person to get his head and shoulders in. Two persons, one for each roll, now assist the carrier, who kneels, bows his head, and places the load on his head and shoulders. The two assist him to rise and the heavy load is taken to the umiak and placed in the bottom for ballast. The shorter poles are first laid in on the ribs of the boat to keep the skins from the water should any seep through the seams. The second bundle of tenting is laid on the first.