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.
我记得曾经见过一个因纽特猎人宰杀一头刚刚打到的驯鹿的情景。他取出驯鹿的胃囊，将其掏空，略作清理，用一截肠子系起来，就做成了一个袋子。接着他在袋子里装上雪，塞回驯鹿依然温热的腹腔，等到雪化了，他再用一小块齐整的雪团当作过滤器，饮用袋子里的雪水。极北地区是一片荒漠，由于空气干燥，人常常会觉得十分口渴。通常情况下，因纽特人要得到水，必须从冰山上凿下冰块，或者生一堆火。因此他们连动物的体热都不会浪费。毕竟，当你被雪包围的时候，想出一些办法利用它才是明智的做法。