264 THE POINT BAEEOW ESKIMO. 



killed with a stone-headed arrow, which we were told was necessary 

 for the purpose, and their skins dressed aud cut into strips which were 

 sold around the village. Superstition required that the man who killed 

 these wolves should sleep outside of the house in a tent or snow hut for 

 &quot;one moon&quot; after killing them. We did not learn the reason for this 

 practice beyond that it would be &quot;bad&quot; to do otherwise. 



The fox. Foxes are sometimes shot, but are generally taken in the 

 traps described above, which are usually set some distance from the 

 village so as to avoid catching prowling dogs. Though generally ex 

 ceedingly shy, the fox is sometimes rendered careless by hunger. One 

 of the women at the deer-hunters camp in the spring of 1882 caught 

 one in the little snow house built to store the meat and killed him with 

 a stick. 



TJie reindeer. Reindeer are comparatively scarce within the radius 

 of a day s march from Point Barrow, though solitary animals and small 

 parties are to be seen almost any day in the winter a few miles inland 

 from the seacoast. In the autumn, which is the rutting season, they 

 occasionally wander down to the lagoons back of the beach. Nearly 

 every day in the autumn and winter, when the weather is not stormy, 

 one or more natives are out looking for reindeer, usually traveling on 

 suowshoes and carrying their rifles slung on their backs. The deer are 

 generally very wild and often perceive a man and begin to run at a dis 

 tance of a mile or two, though a rutting buck will sometimes fancy that 

 a skin-clad Eskimo is a. rival buck, and come toward him, especially 

 if the hunter crouches down and keeps perfectly still. 



The usual method of hunting is to walk off inland until a deer is 

 sighted, when the hunter moves directly toward him at a rapid pace, 

 without regard to the wind or attempting to conceal himself, which 

 would be almost hopeless in such open country. As soon as the deer 

 starts to run, the hunter quickens his pace to a run, if he has &quot;wind&quot; 

 enough and follows the game as long as he can keep it in sight, trust 

 ing that the well known curiosity of the deer will induce it to &quot; circle&quot; 

 round, in order to see what it is that is following him with such perti 

 nacity. Should the deer turn, as often happens, especially if there is 

 more than one of them, the hunter alters his course so as to head him 

 off, and as soon as he gets within long rifle range opens fire, and keeps 

 it up till the animal is hit or escapes out of range. Strange as it may 

 seem, a number of deer are killed every winter in this way. 



If a deer be killed, the hunter usually &quot;butchers&quot; him on the spot, 

 and brings in as much of the meat as he can carry on his back, leaving 

 the rest, carefully covered with slabs of snow to protect it from the foxes, 

 to be brought in as soon as convenient by a dog sled, which follows the 

 hunter s tracks to the place. 



During the spring the deer retire some distance from the Point, and 

 the does then drop their fawns. At this season nearly all the natives 

 are busily engaged in the whale fishery, and pay little attention to the 



