50 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



snow, and covered the wiiole witli siiowj luit tliev dug beneath tlie trap, 

 and seemed tlie halt IVoiii beh)w, often even witliout springing the trap. 

 Witli an ieo traj) made after the Eskimo pattern 1 was more successful. 



As soon as the seals begin i>n]>pJng, the foxes fare better; this season 

 is in fact the grand banqueting time for these animals, after the long 

 sufferings and privations of winter. At this season (March, April, and 

 May), thej' destroy a great many young seals. I have often fmind the 

 remains of the seals so well slinncd and cleaned that it seems impossi- 

 ble it could have been done by an animal. They begin by biting the 

 skin around the mouth, and drawing the entire animal through the aper- 

 ture, and turning the skin inside out; even the flippers are drawn through 

 to the nails, and every vestige of the meat removed. Xor is the skin 

 bitten in the least, although it is finely cleaned of all the fat. lUit the 

 most remarkable part of all is, that the skeleton remains intact and finely 

 cleaned. When the Eskimo find such skins, tliey always make use of 

 them, as the.y are quite as well skinned as if they had done it them- 

 selves. The white variety appears to be much more abundant than the 

 blue. According to the Eskimo, the two varieties interbreed, and the 

 young are sometimes dark and both parents wliite, and vke versa. 1 )ur- 

 ing the winter months they congregate in considerable numbers about 

 any carcass, especially a wliale, and get themselves thoroughly begrimed 

 with grease. 



It often happens that some venturesome fellow succeeds in getting 

 upon the ducks' island, in l)reeding time, by means of the ice, and is 

 left there; but when tlie birds leave he gets enough shell-fish, &e., at 

 low-water to live on till the ice makes. If they are a short distance from 

 the mainland or from other islands, they do not hesitate to take to the 

 water. 



3. Caiiis familiaris, Limn', v.ir. borealis. 



'' Kidiiiik," or " Mikkii-," Cuiiil>erlaiul Kskiino. 

 As might be expected, the dogs of the Cumberland Ivskimoareafilieted 

 with the much dreaded ralues. I i)aid considerable attention to the 

 subject, in hopes of being able to throw soiue light on the eause of this 

 disease, but, like many others before me, with little success. In the first 

 place, so far as the dogs about our winter harbor wen^ concerned at least, 

 there are other <'aus)\s besides the so-called hy<lr<»phol)ia that lessens 

 their ranks, though wiieu a dog dies this is always the cause assigned. 

 Some of the best tlogs that died at Annanaeti>o]; during the^\int^r of 

 1S77-78 died from injuries inlliited on the head l)y a club in the hands 



