Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/64

 500 lbs.; after cleansing, 100 lbs.; and of stockfish—that is, dried codfish unsalted, 4,000 lbs.

I may state that during Governor Elberg's time, since 1850, there have been killed from 5,000 to 6,000 reindeer. Several years ago there were obtained in two years from the Esquimaux about fifty tons of reindeer horn, costing some two skillings, or one cent federal money, per pound; 4,500 lbs. of it were sent home to Copenhagen, but it would not pay freight.

The governor also told me that "whenever the ships were obliged to take home to Copenhagen stone for ballast, they could sell it to no purpose, because it was complained of as rotten." This I found to be generally true. On several mountains I visited, stones exposed to the atmosphere were crumbling. On Mount Cunningham I had satisfactory proof of it. Small mounds of stone that have evidently crumbled off the larger mountains may be seen lying at the base. The winters are doing their levelling work, and doing it rapidly.

There are four midwives. Two have a good medical education, obtained in Copenhagen. They receive $70 (Danish) per year.

One of these latter gets six dollars, and teaches his two children—the only two children of his district—to read and write!

Four women, who teach the children "A, B, C's," get each one dollar per year.

The men, sixteen in number, in the employ of government, get each forty to ninety dollars per year, besides provisions for themselves and families. Every fourteen days bread is baked for them.

In the town there are twenty-four stoves—only one to each