ARCHEOLOGICAL WORK IN ARCTIC CANADA — COLLINS 521 



Comparison of the two series reveals some interesting differences 

 in the hunting practices and food habits of these two groups of Eski- 

 mos who had occupied the same locality at different times in the past. 

 The seal was the principal food animal of both groups, represented 

 by 66 and 65 percent of the bones. Next in importance were the walrus 

 and bearded seal. Fox bones were much more numerous at the Dorset 

 site and polar bear bones were relatively rare at both sites. One 

 somewhat surprising result of the bone count was evidence that the 

 Dorset people made very little use of the caribou, which was one of 

 the most important sources of food of the later Sadlermiuts. More 

 striking still was the fact that not a single dog bone was found at T 1, 

 though they numbered over 6 percent at the Sadlermiut site. The 

 absence of dog bones may explain the paucity of caribou bones at T 1. 

 Since they had no dog sleds and therefore no effective means of winter 

 travel, the early Dorset people would have been unable to go on long 

 hunting trips to the eastern side of the island where the caribou mostly 

 lived. 



Birds were also an important element in the diet of the Dorset and 

 Sadlermiut people if we may judge from the thousands of bones exca- 

 vated and brought back to the Smithsonian for identification. In the 

 eastern part of the Dorset site about 90 percent of the bones were those 

 of birds. It is probable that this part of the site was occupied only 

 during the summer months when enormous flocks of migratory birds 

 come north to breed. There are no indications as to how the birds 

 were captured. We found no bolas weights or bird spears such as 

 other Eskimos, including the Sadlermiut, used for this purpose. The 

 early Dorset people may have caught their birds with snares made 

 from perishable materials such as skin thongs or sinew, which would 

 not have been preserved. 



