266 THE POINT BAKKOW ESKIMO. 



similar to the practice described by Schwatka 1 among the &quot; Netschilluk&quot; 

 of King William s Laud, where a Hue of cairns as high as a man and 

 50 to 100 yards apart is built along a ridge running obliquely to the 

 water. When deer are seen feeding near the water the men form a 

 skirmish line from the last cairn to the water and advance slowly. 

 The deer mistake the cairns for men and take to the water, where they 

 are easily speared. 



The most important deer hunt takes place in the late fall and early 

 spring, when the natives go inland 50 or 75 miles to the upper waters of 

 Kuaru and Kulugrua, where the deer are exceedingly plentiful at this 

 season. Capt. Herendeen, who went inland with the deer hunters in the 

 autumn of 1882, reports that the bottom lands of Kulugrua &quot; looked like 

 a cattle yard,&quot; from the tracks of the reindeer. They start as soon as 

 it is possible to- travel across the country with sledges, usually about the 

 first of October, taking guns, ammunition, fishing tackle, and the nec 

 essary household utensils for themselves and their families, and stay till 

 the daylight gets too short for hunting. In 1882, many parties got home 

 about October 27 or 28. At this season there is seldom snow enough 

 to build snow huts, so they generally live in tents, always close to the 

 rivers from which they procure water for household use. The men 

 spend their time hunting the deer, while the women bring in the game, 

 attend to drying the skins and the household work, and catch whitefish 

 and burbot through the ice of the rivers, which are now- frozen hard 

 enough for this purpose. Some, of the old men and those who have not 

 a supply of ammunition engage in the same pursuit. 



A comparatively small number of the people go out to this fall deer 

 hunt, which appears to be a new custom, adopted since Dr. Simpson s 

 time. It was probably not worth while to go out after deer at seasons 

 when there was not enough snow for digging pitfalls, since they depended 

 chiefly on these for the capture of the reindeer before the introduction 

 of firearms. Fully half of each village go out on the spring deer hunt, 

 as they did in Maguire s time, the first parties starting out with the 

 return of the sun, about January 23, and the others following in the 

 course of two or three weeks, and remain out till about the middle of 

 April, when it is time to come back for the whale fishery. The people 

 of Utkiavwm always travel to the hunting grounds by a regular road, 

 which is the same as that followed by Lieut. Ray in his exploring trips. 

 They travel along the coast on the ice wherever it is smooth enough till 

 they reach Sl fiaru, and then strike across country, crossing Kuaru and 

 reaching Kulugrua near the hill Nuasu/knan. (See map, PI. n.) 



The people from Nuwuk travel straight across Elsoii Bay to the south 

 till they reach nearly the same region. Some parties from Nuwtik also 

 hunt in the rough country between Kulugrua and Ikplkpun. As the 

 sledges are heavily laden with camp equipage, provisions and oil for 

 the lamps, they travel slowly, taking four or five days for the journey, 



1 Science, vol. 4. 9, pp. 543-544. 



