I remember watching as an Inuit hunter was butchering a freshly shot caribou. He gutted the animal’s stomach, emptied it out and cleaned it a little to create a sack, tied up with a bit of intestine, which he proceeded to pack with snow. The hunter tucked the stomach back into the warm body cavity and, once the snow had melted, he drank the liquid through a small, neat block of snow that acted as a filter. The High Arctic is a desert, and the dry air makes you very thirsty. For the Inuit to get water they normally have to chip blocks off an iceberg or light a fire. So even the animal’s warmth is not wasted. When surrounded by snow it is, after all, wise to find some use for it.
我記得曾經見過一個因紐特獵人宰殺一頭剛剛打到的馴鹿的情景。他取出馴鹿的胃囊，將其掏空，略作清理，用一截腸子系起來，就做成了一個袋子。接著他在袋子里裝上雪，塞回馴鹿依然溫熱的腹腔，等到雪化了，他再用一小塊齊整的雪團當作過濾器，飲用袋子里的雪水。極北地區是一片荒漠，由于空氣干燥，人常常會覺得十分口渴。通常情況下，因紐特人要得到水，必須從冰山上鑿下冰塊，或者生一堆火。因此他們連動物的體熱都不會浪費。畢竟，當你被雪包圍的時候，想出一些辦法利用它才是明智的做法。