THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 279 



or cattle or caribou, but only one Eskimo hunter, Natkusiak. And 

 walrus and cattle are absent from Banks Island and its vicinity. 



That the native resources here were less than are commonly 

 found in the North made the task all the more absorbing. It was 

 a question of caribou and seals, and the seals we left to the mid- 

 winter. This for two reasons: first, you can kill seals under favor- 

 able circumstances even in the twilight of winter when the sun 

 never rises, but for caribou, where the field-glasses are as important 

 as the rifle, daylight is necessary for any considerable success; and 

 second, to us who have lived long in the North the lean caribou of 

 midwinter and spring are only a food and not a very satisfactory 

 one at that; but the fat caribou of the autumn are a delicacy. 



Wilkins, Natkusiak, and I commenced the hunt at once by 

 traveling three days northeasterly from our base at Kellett. It was 

 snowing hard most of the time. We could not see more than a mile 

 or two, and all caribou tracks were naturally buried. It is an 

 idiosyncrasy with me, or possibly a matter of pride, that however 

 abundant the food supply is in the camp from which we start upon 

 a hunt, we seldom carry more than two or three days' provisions. 

 We have never yet failed to get some game before the fund was 

 gone, and it is generally good policy, for one travels more rapidly, 

 hunts more energetically and feels a greater reward in his success 

 when he knows that it is a matter of getting game or going hungry. 

 It need not be imagined either, that the method is dangerous, for 

 no one who has tried fasting can be induced to fear four or five 

 days without food. You get no hungrier after the afternoon of the 

 first day, and any traveler who complains about going three or 

 four days without food will get scant sympathy from me. Having 

 three days' provisions in the sled means that your party is good 

 for at least ten days, before which time something is sure to 

 turn up. 



Darkness was coming on rapidly and we had to make our 

 harvest in its season. The caribou were getting leaner and their 

 meat less desirable. On the fourth day I asked Wilkins, then least 

 experienced of the three of us, although he later became a first- 

 class hunter, to stay and guard the camp while Natkusiak and I 

 struck off in different directions through a fairly thick blizzard. 

 The visibility of caribou in that sort of storm was under four 

 hundred yards, but there is this compensatory advantage in a 

 blizzard, that by real watchfulness you are practically certain to 

 see caribou before they see you, and at a range where you can 

 begin shooting at once. Furthermore, the wind drowns any noise 



