A man can scrape two skins in a day, and some of the women--many
of them are, indeed, very skillful with their crude, home-made
needles--can make a coat in two days, and a pair of trousers in one
day. Some of the young men, whose wives are good tailors, affect
considerable ornamentation upon the inside coat; but this is usually
seen in the trimming that surrounds the lower edge and the border of
the hood. Successive narrow strips of white and black fur, with very
short hair, compose this trimming, and the lower edge is finished with
fringe made of thin skin, which is quite ornamental in effect. It also
aids in keeping out the wind, and is, therefore, useful as well. The
outside coat is sometimes surrounded with a border of white fur, with
the fringe attached of longer hair than that upon the inner coat. Some
of the belles, and indeed some of the women whose beauty is a thing of
the past, wear a breastplate of beadwork, which is further decorated
with a fringe of reindeer teeth that has a most ghastly effect--they
look so much like human teeth. The style of costume differs but little
among the various tribes of North America; but in any part of the
country the labor of producing the clothing is the same, and if a man
would dress well he must work hard--he cannot order his suit from a
confiding tailor. It has its advantages and disadvantages. He has no
tailor's bills to avoid the payment of, but he must depend upon himself
and a loving and skilful wife.
CHAPTER X.
OVER MELTING SNOWS.
We were now on the march from Cape Felix. Lieutenant Schwatka had kept
about a mile east of Frank and Henry, who walked along the coast, and I
about a mile and a half east of Lieutenant Schwatka. When about a mile
and a half above our old camp at Wall Bay, he found a cairn very
similar in construction to the one he found inland from Cape Felix. The
top had been taken down, but in the first course of stones, covered and
protected by those thrown from the top, he found a piece of paper with
a carefully drawn hand upon it, the index finger pointing at the time
in a southerly direction. The bottom part of the paper, on which rested
the stone that held it in place, had completely rotted off, so that if
there had ever been any writing upon it, that, too, had disappeared. He
called Frank to his assistance, and they spent several hours in
carefully examining the vicinity, without discovering anything else. It
would seem, however, that whatever memorandum or guide it was intended
for was only temporary, and was probably put there by some surveying or
hunting party from the ships.
We encamped on a point below Cape Maria Louisa, after our next march,
and after erecting the tent Owanork found a cache on the flats
containing a wooden canteen, barrel-shaped, marked on one side
NO. 3,
and on the other,
G. B.,
under the Queen's broad arrow. There were also the staves of another
canteen, a small keg, a tin powder can, several red cans marked
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