402 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



At intervals of perhaps half a mile men, women, or even chil- 

 dren of six or seven years are stationed and there must be at least 

 one person at each extreme of the lines. The hunters with bows 

 and arrows lie in ambush at the angle of the "V" while the rest 

 of the men and women form a crescent curve beyond the caribou 

 so as to drive them towards the ambush. In my experience the 

 driving is started by the men giving long howls in imitation of 

 wolves. This generally makes the caribou restless and starts them 

 moving slowly and uncertainly away from the direction from which 

 the howls come. Sometimes, instead of the imitation wolf-howling, 

 dogs which are held in leash are induced to bark. It may happen 

 either deliberately or through accident that the caribou get the wind 

 of these drivers, which usually has the same effect of starting them 

 to leeward. The drivers gradually close in and the caribou enter 

 the V-shaped area. 



Presently they see one of the people who stand in the line of 

 monuments. Apparently they recognize these as human beings 

 and dangerous enemies, or possibly they take them for wolves. 

 Anyway, when they are once scared and get the idea that there are 

 people or wolves in this line, their imagination appears to turn all 

 the little monuments into a line of people. Hence the Eskimo 

 name inuksuk, "likeness of a man"; inuksuit is the plural form. It 

 seems absurd that two stones, one on top of the other, reaching 

 an elevation of only a foot, should be feared as much by the 

 caribou as actual persons but that appears to be the fact. It 

 seldom happens that the animals break through the line and usu- 

 ally they are driven at a speed of from five to eight miles per hour 

 towards the ambush where several of them are shot. It is here, 

 when the people who have been standing at the sides close in on 

 them from behind and when the caribou get frantically frightened, 

 that some may break through and escape. 



The only person who kept a record of caribou killed by various 

 members of the expedition that winter on Victoria Island was the 

 steward, Levi, and his record seems to have been lost, but my im- 

 pression is that we got between twenty-five and forty. In addition 

 we got a great many seals, and a few polar bears. On September 

 23rd, for instance, Illun secured five seals and I six, giving us on 

 that day a ton of meat and fat. 



The third line of camp activity was unloading the ship and 

 house-building. This naturally occupied most of the men. Hadley 

 was architect and chief carpenter. There was lumber for a house 

 and glass for windows. 



