REINDEER AND MUSK-OX 



A number of Copper Eskimos, Kemirk and others, went inland and 

 wintered at Dismal lake in 1919-20, trapping foxes and living on caribou. I key 

 (Ikey Belt or Angotitsiak), Point Hope, Alaska, native, who came in with 

 Canadian Arctic Expedition in 1914, and another native killed 75 caribou in a 

 week, west of the mouth of the Coppermine river in early spring of 1920. They 

 needed most of the meat, as several families were living on caribou meat. They 

 eat enormous quantities when living on lean caribou meat. Caribou are mostly 

 poor at that season, being largely cows near calving time. 



A few natives were sealing in winter (1919-20) in Dolphin and Union strait 

 and the west end of Coronation gulf, but all of them quit sealing two months 

 earlier than they used to. They trapped foxes heavily in March and April, 

 and well into the month of May. 



Some of Klengenberg's family, and other natives, spent part of the winter, 

 two or three years ago, thirty or forty miles back up the Coppermine river, 

 within the timber belt, and trapped eleven cross foxes and some other fur. 

 This region has never been trapped before. It used to be a good wintering place 

 for caribou, viz., 1911, 1914, 1915 and 1916 (according to my own experience). 



Captain Bernard says that the natives of Adelaide peninsula region are 

 larger and stronger than the Coronation gulf region. They kill some caribou, 

 but live more largely on fish. The Eskimos in that region are badly infected 

 with syphillis, which came from Hudson bay region. He only noticed one case 

 west of there, i.e., one woman in Bathurst inlet who had come from Hudson bay. 

 Tuberculosis seems to be coming into Coronation gulf, Bernard thinks from their 

 now frequent meetings with Great Bear Lake Indians. A large party of Dog- 

 Ribs (7) from south of Great Bear lake came down to the coast two or three 

 years ago to trade with Klengenberg. These Indians had never done so before, 

 as they were afraid of Eskimos. 



Different Kinds of Caribou — 



Captain Bernard thinks that there are two different kinds of caribou in the 

 region about the mouth of the Coppermine. The smaller, whiter animals are 

 the ones that come across from Victoria island in the fall and go back in the 

 spring. Some of them may remain on the mainland all summer, however. He 

 has seen larger, darker, animals up the Kogaryusk river in the spring. He 

 thinks that these may be the variety which winters farther inland and comes 

 back toward the coast in the spring. The smaller variety probably does not 

 go very far inland south of Coronation gulf and south of Dolphin and Union 

 strait in winter. 



The above coincided with my own view that the caribou wintering around 

 east end of Great Bear lake (Caribou point, Dease river, etc.) are larger and 

 darker, with shorter heads than the Coppermine river winter caribou. The 

 Bear lake caribou go a ways north in summer, to Dismal lake and beyond, also 

 the "caribou ground" of the Indians outside of the timber north of Great Bear 

 lake. That is, the winter ground of the Victoria island caribou overlaps the 

 summer range of the Great Bear lake caribou. Presumably some of the caribou 

 which summer around Great Bear lake go south in winter to Great Slave lake, 

 etc., to the type locality of arcticus (Fort Enterprise region). The big migration 

 which Mr. Stefansson reported on Dease river in 1919, in October, was too 

 early to be composed of animals which come from Victoria island, as the latter 

 cannot cross the strait or gulf until November. 



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