THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 283 



the hearts of those farthest away, so that any if they ran, would 

 run towards me. The calves were left till the last. 



The very deliberation with which this sort of hunting is done, 

 while it makes conspicuous the element of apparent cruelty, makes 

 it the least cruel method possible in point of the pain caused the 

 animals. A number of hunters greatly excited and blazing a<way 

 in the manner of those inexperienced or afflicted with "buck fever," 

 will mean all sorts of painful wounds that are not fatal and that 

 may be borne for days or weeks by animals that escape. The most 

 cruel of wounds to caribou is a broken leg, for there is no hope 

 of recovery, and yet they can escape for the time being. I have 

 on two or three occasions had a chance to study these animals 

 afterward. They appear to realize that their speed, now that they 

 have only three legs to run on, is inferior to the rest of the herd, 

 and they are in evident and continual dread of the wolves that 

 are sure to drag them down unless a hunter's bullet mercifully 

 intervenes. In a properly conducted hunt by such a method as ours 

 a wounded animal hardly ever escapes, and with our powerful 

 rifles even a shot through the abdominal cavity will ensure death 

 in five minutes to half an hour. 



The reason for killing entire bands of caribou is conservation 

 and convenience. If you kill them in scattered places the freight- 

 ing problem becomes serious, and especially the matter of protec- 

 tion of the meat from wolves. But with a big kill you can camp 

 by the meat and see that none of it gets lost. Furthermore, in 

 islands like Banks Island, caribou are so scarce that in the ordi- 

 nary fall hunts in order to get enough meat we have to kill 75 

 per cent, or more of all animals seen. In the fall of 1914 we 

 had only two or three weeks of reasonably good daylight in which 

 to get meat for all winter. For when the daylight comes again 

 in the spring we are not only busy with exploratory work, but also 

 the meat is lean and neither as nutritious nor half as palatable as if 

 fall-killed. 



Any one who sees charm in the life of a hunter or life in the 

 open will need no argument to convince him that the lives of 

 arctic hunters are interesting, but he may think they are uncom- 

 fortable enough for that to be a serious drawback. This is by 

 no means the case, thanks to the cozy dwellings in which we spend 

 our nights and excessively stormy days and any periods that are 

 idle through necessity or choice. 



A snow house that is essentially as comfortable as a room of 

 the same size in an ordinary dwelling-house can be put up in fifty 



