POLAR GEOGRAPHY BROWN 367 



its sharp horns but finds safety in numbers. The wolf seldom cares 

 to attack a herd.^- 



Musk ox and reindeer are complementary to one another in their 

 food requirements. The reindeer prefers grass and willow shoots 

 in summer and the lichens, known as reindeer and Iceland moss, in 

 winter, while the musk ox eats grass and shoots at all seasons. Now 

 grass and shoots are more abundant than lichens on the Arctic tun- 

 dras, so that the number of reindeer are limited by the winter feed, 

 while much grass remains surplus and could be utilized by musk ox. 

 The relatively restricted area of the musk ox to-day in Arctic 

 Canada is solely due to the ease with which it is hunted. Now that 

 it is protected by law, there is no reason why its range should not 

 increase considerably. 



The reindeer has been domesticated from early times in the Old 

 World, even if we can not be sure that the reindeer of Stone Age 

 man in Europe were tamed and not merely wild herds. The pros- 

 perity and very existence of most peoples of the Old World tundi'as 

 from Lapland to Bering Strait to-day depend on the reindeer. 

 Lapp, Zirian, Samoyede, Ostyak, Tungus, Chukchee, and Koryak 

 are all reindeer breeders to a greater or less degree, and the reindeef 

 provides them with meat, milk, clothing, and leather. They alone 

 are the prosperous tribes, and their prosperity, as is the way of 

 prosperity, causes them to look down on the hunting and fishing 

 tribes such as the Yuchagir, Kamchadals, and some Samoyedes, who 

 have a hard struggle to survive. Yet it should be noted that even 

 :among the Chukchee, who are the most successful reindeer breeders 

 in Siberia, the reindeer is only partially domesticated, and the herds 

 •often run wild owing to the interbreeding with wild deer. The 

 Sherds of the Koryaks also frequently revert to the wild state. 



In the New World, including Greenland, the caribou has never been 

 ■domesticated. The Eskimo are chiefly dependent on sea mammals 

 a.nd fish. Sea mammals yield a greater supply of oil, their only 

 source of fuel and light, than caribou and musk ox. To the Eskimo 

 land animals are a secondary consideration, valuable in the summer 

 nomadism as offering a change of food and variety of occupation, 

 hut rarely now the staple of their existence. Even the Caribou 

 Eskimo, inland dwellers to the west of Hudson Bay, have never 

 tamed the reindeer, but exist by hunting the wild herds. 



In his well-known efforts to dispel the prevalent misconception 

 about the Arctic, V. Stefansson has drawn a glowing picture of the 

 future of the Arctic prairies.^^ His statements have met with some 



^ The Canadian Government now offer £6 per pelt for wolves destroyed in the North- 

 west Territories. The skins find a ready market. In 1926 about a thousand wolves 

 were thus accounted for. 



" V. stefansson, The Northward Course of Empire (1922) ; The Friendly Arctic (1921) ; 

 Polar Pastures, The Forum, January, 192(5, and other articles. 



