266 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



When out one day I came upon the tracks of a 

 large flock of ptarmigans. The birds were nowhere 

 to be seen, however, and I zigzagged up the moun- 

 tainside hoping that I might find them, but did not 

 see a feather. After this I kept a sharp lookout for 

 them, for their flesh is delicious and we needed them 

 for food. The following day I found where they 

 had spent the night in the hard snow. They had 

 made for themselves a perfect little snow igloo as 

 perfect a dome as an Eskimo could have made. It 

 was covered with a hard crust, and opening to the 

 south with a small hole through which the birds passed 

 in and out. The flock must have flown to and from 

 this, for there were no tracks coming or going, and 

 the only tracks to be seen were directly around the 

 door, where they had scratched snow out of the in- 

 terior of the igloo. This was doubtless instinctive 

 precaution, to avoid the possibility of foxes follow- 

 ing them to their shelter. On my way back to camp 

 I was fortunate enough to walk into a bunch of six, 

 and my .22 rifle brought two of them down before the 

 remainder took to the wing and passed out of range. 

 They are very difficult to see, as they match exactly 

 with the snow, with the exception of their eyes and 

 a little splotch of black on their wing-tips. 



Billy and I were getting ready for bed that night 

 when some pups, which we had outside, began howl- 

 ing. I took a look out, but could see no cause for 

 the disturbance, and returned. The pups, however, 

 continued to howl so loudly that finally Billy dressed 

 in his fur clothing, climbed a small hill which lies just 



