Chapter XII: INNUIT LIFE AND LAND pp. 374-411

“Nooshagak;” Wide Application of an Innuit Name.—The Post and
River.—Countless Pools, Ponds, and Lakes of this District
bordering Bristol Bay.—The Eskimo Inhabitants of the Coast.—The
Features and Form of Alaskan Innuits.—Light-hearted, Inconstant,
and Independent.—Their Dress, Manners, and Rude Dwellings.—Their
Routine of Life.—Large and Varied Natural Food-supplies.—Indifferent
Land Hunters, but Mighty Fishermen.—Limited Needs from Traders’
Stores.—Skilful Carvers in Ivory.—Their Town Hall, or “Kashga.”—They
Build and Support no Churches here.—Not of a real Religious Cast,
as the Aleutians are.—The Dogs and Sleds; Importance of Them
here.—Great Interest of the Innuit in Savage Ceremonies.—The Wild
Alaskan Interior.—Its Repellent Features alike Avoided by Savage
and Civilized Man.—The Indescribable Misery of Mosquitoes.—The
Desolation of Winter in this Region.—The Reindeer Slaughter-pen on
the Kvichak River.—Amazing Improvidence of the Innuit.—The Tragic
Death of Father Juvenals, on the Banks of the Great Ilyamna Lake,
1796.—The Queer Innuits of Togiak.—Immense Muskrat Catch.—The
Togiaks are the Quakers of Alaska.—The Kuskokvim Mouth a Vast
Salmon-trap.—The Ichthyophagi of Alaska.—Dense Population.—Daily Life
of the Fish-eaters.—Infernal Mosquitoes of Kuskokvim; the Worst in
Alaska.—Kolmakovsky; its History.