As far as our observations go these people eat little, if any, more fat than civilized man, and, as a rule, not by itself. Fat may occasionally be eaten (they are fond of the fat on the inside of duck skins), but they do not habitually eat the great quantities of blubber spoken of in some other places[N103] or drink oil, as the Hudson Bay Eskimo are said to do by Hall, or use it as a sauce for dry food, like the natives of Norton Sound. It is usually supposed and generally stated in the popular accounts of the Eskimo that it is a physiological necessity for them to eat enormous quantities of blubber in order to obtain a sufficient amount of carbon to enable them to maintain their animal heat in the cold climate which they inhabit. A careful comparison, however, of the reports of actual observers[N104] shows that an excessive eating of fat is not the rule, and is perhaps confined to the territory near Boothia Felix. [Footnote N103: For instance, Schwatka says that the Nĕtcĭlĭk of King William Land devour enormous quantities of seal blubber, “noticeably more in summer than the other tribes,” viz, those of the western shores of Hudson’s Bay (Science, vol. 4, p. 544). Parry speaks of the natives of the Savage Islands, Hudson’s Strait, eating raw blubber and sucking the oil remaining on the skins they had emptied (2d Voyage, p. 14).] [Footnote N104: See for example Egede’s Greenland, p. 134; Crantz, History of Greenland, vol. 1, p. 144; Dall, Alaska, passim; Hooper, Tents of the Tuski, p. 170; Nordenskiöld, Vega, p. 110.] Eggs of all kinds, except, of course, the smallest, are eagerly sought for, but the smaller birds are seldom eaten, as it is a waste of time and ammunition to pursue them. We saw this people eat no vegetable substances, though they informed us that the buds of the willow were sometimes eaten. Of late years they have acquired a fondness for many kinds of civilized food, especially bread of any kind, flour, sugar, and molasses, and some of them are learning to like salt. They were very glad to purchase from us corn-meal “mush” and the broken victuals from the table. These were, however, considered as special dainties and eaten as luncheons or as a dessert after the regular meal. The children and even some of the women were always on the watch for the cook’s slop bucket to be brought out, and vied with the ubiquitous dogs in searching for scraps of food. Meat which epicures would call rather “high” is eaten with relish, but they seem to prefer fresh meat when they can get it.