Alaska field notes, v4468
Page 141
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Transcription
Eskimo Notes Point Barrow, Alaska May 22 and several persons around the lab have remarked about it. I think I'll have to move the bunting studies to the Old City so I can look around at leisure. Harvardman are interested in this culture and will be here this summer. The snow bunting has a definite relationship to the eskimo and lives close about his dwelling, for it nests in buildings or their crevices. The Old Point Barrow still supports a small number of buntings, though the effect of the eskimo's wastes on the soil is diminished. The fertilizing effects of them produces better grasses and thus more abundant bunting food. One last year nested in an old whale skull that lay on the ground. This bird does not live on the open tundra. My intention was not to write a book particularly after only a week in Eskimoland. Perhaps in a few more weeks I shall be able to boil things down to a less lengthy discourse, with an increase of actual fact thrown in. It is indeed a surprise that a few observations should extend so far.