THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 559 



farmer's cow is as likely to break through a stone fence and get 

 lost as a band of ovibos to travel beyond reach during a single 

 night. 



My recollection is that we had finished our lean meat a day or 

 two before and had been eating remnants of caribou fat brought 

 from Lougheed Island. The diary merely records that for the last 

 two or three days the dogs had eaten forty of their sealskin boots, 

 some new and others in which they had worn holes on the needle 

 ice in the summer. They had also eaten several pairs of our 

 worn-out sealskin water boots. We had been taking them home 

 for new soles but now sacrificed the uppers rather than let the 

 dogs get too thin. 



We have so often come to our last meal in the uncertain lands 

 where ovibos are absent that an empty larder did not worry us in 

 Melville Island, especially with a herd in sight. I don't think it 

 would have worried us much if I had not seen the herd, for even in 

 a snowstorm an ovibos can be seen three or four times as far as a 

 caribou and when seen never escapes. A caribou track may lead 

 you on for tens of miles, while polar cattle do not move ordinarily 

 more than a few hundred yards in a week and any trail, no matter 

 how old, will soon lead to the herd. 



On my way home in the evening I had seen a bay that ran into 

 the land not far from where the cattle were grazing. The next 

 morning the men moved camp to that bay and came inland with 

 a light sledge for fetching the meat, while I went ahead and killed 

 a bull and an old cow. I saw a second band (fourteen) but did 

 not bother them. 



A little later will be given a full description of the habits of 

 ovibos and our methods of killing them, but now that I have 

 thought of it I cannot resist saying that the word "sport" has a 

 curious meaning when applied to killing them. I have heard of 

 long journeys being made and even of ships being outfitted for 

 the purpose of "hunting" ovibos. There may be much to say for 

 the pleasures and even the adventures of the journey itself, but 

 as for the "hunting" I would suggest that equally good "sport" 

 could be secured with far less trouble and expense by paying some 

 farmer for the permission of going into his pasture and killing his 

 cows. I can conceive of accidents happening in ovibos killing and 

 I have read stories, of the truth of which I have not the slightest 

 doubt, showing that when conditions are just right, or rather just 

 wrong, dogs and even men may be in some danger from them. 

 Sverdrup tells of a team of dogs that dragged the sled to which 



