THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 401 



The first day Palaiyak came upon seven bulls of which he 

 killed six. Thereafter we got a few stragglers but in general the 

 season was too late for getting caribou in this particular part of 

 Victoria Island. It had been believed previously that no caribou 

 winter in the island at all and the Eskimos of Coronation Gulf 

 gave me direct testimony to that effect in 1911. We proved this 

 winter, as I had suspected, that this idea is based on mere lack of 

 information. The Eskimos are out on the sea ice all the winter 

 where they have no opportunity for observing conditions inland. 

 And besides, many caribou do leave the island most falls if not every 

 fall, going south to the mainland. We found in the winter of 1915- 

 1916 that the Eskimos of Minto Inlet were aware of the presence 

 of caribou on the land although they made no attempt to hunt 

 them, living entirely on seals and polar bears. 



The country inland from our winter base near Armstrong Point 

 is one of the rockiest sections in which I have hunted in the North. 

 There are not many spectacular outcrops to give the casual observer 

 the feeling of it, but when you walk over the hills you find that 

 the surface is finely splintered rock which wears out in three or 

 four days a pair of boot soles that would have lasted as many 

 months in ordinary arctic country. A corollary of this rockiness 

 of the hills is that vegetation is comparatively sparse and confined 

 largely to the lowland. This lowland naturally gets deeply cov- 

 ered with snow that is blown off the bare hills, making the country 

 ill suited to caribou in winter which doubtless is the main reason 

 for their absence. Evidently they are numerous in summer, as 

 we could judge by inuksuit of the previous year, which showed that 

 both Eskimos and caribou had been here in considerable numbers. 



Inuksuit, or "likenesses of men" are used in caribou hunting 

 by most or all Eskimos who hunt with bow and arrow. When a 

 band of caribou is seen grazing quietly a council of all present is 

 held and an ambush determined upon towards which the caribou 

 shall be driven. This ambush is made at the angle of two long lines 

 of monuments, the monuments being set up from fifty to a hun- 

 dred and fifty yards apart, according to the character of the topog- 

 raphy. In rocky country these are made by putting two or three 

 stones one on top of the other to a height of one or two feet. 

 If the herd is large and the drive is looked upon as important the 

 two lines of monuments may be run out each a distance of five 

 or six or even ten miles, although lines of two or three miles are 

 more common. The angle between them may be anything from 

 fifteen to forty-five degrees. 



