THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 347 



away. Such outcomes now and then must account for the cheer- 

 ful optimism with which the owls keep up their watching and 

 worrying of the foxes. 



But this ingenuity of the owl is more than matched by her stu- 

 pidity. Why doesn't she wait till the fox buries the lemming 

 under four or five inches of fluffy snow and trots off? With a 

 scratch or two of her claws in the snow the owl could now have the 

 lemming. Just that much increase of intelligence would certainly 

 make the owl's struggle for existence during the northern winter 

 far simpler. As it is, it must be a severe struggle, which accounts 

 for most of them going south during midwinter, if not before. It is 

 only rare owls, like rare ravens, that spend the whole winter far 

 north of the treeline. 



At the end of June on the middle of the west coast we found 

 the season a great deal more backward than it had been in Banks 

 Island just after our landing the year before. When we had 

 landed at Norway Island on June 25th most of the land was free 

 of snow with here and there a drift persisting in the lee of some hill. 

 Now in Melville Island at the same season the spots of bare 

 ground were scarcely bigger than the spots of snow on Banks 

 Island. Still, the weather was so warm the last week of June that 

 it was unpleasant for walking or any exercise, although we felt it 

 about right for sitting around in idleness at camp time. It is prob- 

 able that a week after we left Melville Island most of the snow was 

 gone. 



On my second expedition I spent the year 1910-1911 northeast 

 of Bear Lake where cattle were still not extinct. At that time 

 we always knew in what direction to go to get them but we had 

 not the sportsman's desire for a trophy and they were not of any 

 great scientific interest, for their pelts are more numerous in mu- 

 seum collections than those of many northern animals. I had also 

 a sentimental disinclination against being a party to the killing of 

 the last survivors in our district. Accordingly, while I saw the 

 traces of cattle and knew Indians who killed them that winter, and 

 while a week's journey would easily have brought us into a country 

 where we could have killed dozens if not hundreds, I had not up to 

 the present killed polar cattle or even looked for them. 



We saw the first of them June 30th although their traces had 

 been evident since we came near the coast. Their footprints were 

 in the mud and great tags of their brown wool lying here and 

 there on the snow or in the grass. I quote my diary: 



