86 



freezes. The wolf comes along, scents this tempting morsel, 

 and bolts it without stopping to ask any questions. As soon as 

 the natural heat and acids of the stomach dissolve the blubber 

 and string, the whalebone string is released and springs out, 

 cutting the walls of the wolf's stomach severely. Speedy death 

 results; the wolf will be found only a short distance away. 



Foxes were taken in stone traps, built up in the form of a 

 four-sided enclosure, with a little hole in the roof. Bait was 

 placed inside, and the fox, having jumped in, could not get out. 

 In another kind there was a trap door which fell and made him 

 prisoner. Another trap was built on the principle of the dead- 

 fall, and when the fox touched the bait, a heavy slab of stone was 

 released and crushed the fox. Ruins of these old stone traps are 

 to be seen all over the northern Labrador coast. 



For the taking of those other scavengers, the gulls, the 

 Cape Wolstenholme Eskimo used to make a hook of two pieces 

 of deer antler. This was attached to a long line. One piece 

 was tied back to the other with a light strip of sinew, so that, 

 when released, it would spring out at right angles again. The 

 hook was baited with blubber, and, being covered with the fat, 

 eagerly swallowed by the voracious gulls. On the hook entering 

 their stomach, the fat melted and the barb was released, holding 

 them fast. They were then easily hauled in by the hunter. 



Snares. 



For the taking of waterfowl, the Labrador Eskimo, like 

 those of other sections, use the whalebone snare. As indicated 

 in Plate XVII b, this consists of a series of nooses suspended 

 from a strip of whalebone. They are set with wooden pegs along 

 the shore of lakes and inlets where waterfowl abound, as in the 

 picture, or placed on rocks near the rookeries and held down by 

 a stone at each end. The swarming birds step through the 

 loops, which draw fast. The fluttering of one prisoner attracts 

 more, and in an evening a native will get fifty to a hundred of 

 the smaller birds. The favourite time for setting these traps is 

 in the early evening, when the birds that have remained in their 

 clefts in the rocks during the day come out to feed on the myriad 

 small flies and gnats which they find on the surface of the water. 



