83 



which is a regular industry in Ungava, as described in the section 

 on food. The white whales are shot, speared, or taken in nets 

 at low tide. They form a regular Arctic article of export for the 

 Hudson's Bay Company posts in northern Labrador. They yield 

 a large amount of fat and meat, and their hides are valuable. 

 The flesh is whitish in colour and is a welcome change after a 

 prolonged diet of seal meat. Plate XXXV B shows a party of 

 Eskimo women at one of the northern Moravian stations, cutting 

 up white whales. 



The polar bear is hunted with dogs. When a bear is sighted , 

 the dogs are loosed and form a ring around him, bringing him to 

 bay. They snarl and snap at him from all directions, taking 

 care to keep just out of the reach of the sweep of his great paws. 

 While he is engaged with the dogs, the hunter comes up and 

 shoots him. Unless he is hit in a vital spot, it takes several shots 

 to dispatch a polar bear. The peculiar shape of the head and 

 shallow brainpan makes a shot in the head not always fatal. 

 One polar bear shot during this trip received two bullets in the 

 ear without succumbing, and did not give up the battle until a 

 heavy bullet shattered the entire top of his head. Others got 

 away with enough lead in their body, it would seem, to sink 

 them. The polar bear, when attacked on land, always makes 

 for the nearest water, consequently when natives run across them 

 in summer, they try to get between them and the water. I was 

 told by an old hunter that the old males hibernate in summer in 

 the caves in the rocky country of northern Labrador. One 

 hunter would drive them out by stamping and shouting on top 

 of the cave from the rear, while the other stood on guard with his 

 rifle at the entrance. Female bears with their young were taken 

 in the same way in the snow-houses which they scoop out for 

 themselves and their young in the spring. In old times the 

 harpoon, of course, took the place of the rifle. It was thrust 

 into the ribs of the bear, while he was making a sweep at one of 

 the dogs surrounding him. Heavy arrows were also used. Old 

 Eskimo say that some of their hunters could use the sinew- 

 backed bow with such force that it would drive an arrow 

 through a bear. 



