304 



certain passes between the hills. We can still see up there 

 (i. e. on the hills at Olriks Fjord) the many hard-trodden paths. 

 The hunters knew), therefore, which paths the animals would 

 follow, both in going down to the coast in the spring and in 

 returning to the hills in winter. They stretched long lines of 

 seal-hide across the deer paths, fixing the lines at short inter- 

 vals to small piles of stones which they built. When a herd 

 of deer came along and ran their heads against the line, they 

 never tried to jump over it but simply followed it along to one 

 of the ends. Here an archer was posted at both sides, sitting 

 within a sheltering wall of stone, so that the deer should not 

 suspect anything, and in this way the spoil was led to the 

 hunter. The custom was also for many to join in the hunt 

 and confuse the herds by cries, so that the deer were driven 

 from the one shooting-box to the other. But for this method 

 to succeed, the ground had not to be too broad" Ч 



Fishing is of little importance for the Polar Eskimos. The 

 sea is not so rich in fish as further south. The salmon-fishing 

 of recent years has already been mentioned. Further, I have 

 seen sea-scorpions (Cottus) taken by a boy from his fathers 

 kayak with hook and line, and also a special kind of fishing- 

 apparatus, consisting of a ca. 8 cm long two-pronged fork, 

 with teeth on the inner side of the prongs, which was cut out 

 of a piece of narwhal or walrus bone and attached to a pole 

 quite 1 m long. This apparatus was said to be used in fishing 

 for a small fish, probably a gadoid. 



The considerable booty, the Polar Eskimo obtains as a 

 rule on his hunting tours, cannot possibly be taken along with 

 him to the settlement on his sledge, and still less in his kayak. 

 What he does, therefore, is to hide the surplus in a depot, 

 from which it can be fetched later. The natural conditions 

 during the greater part of the year make this method of pre- 

 serving easy, as the meat freezes, and if the seal or walrus 



^ Knud Rasmussen, 1. с, p. 97. 



