DUCK SHOOTING 377 



paucity, for if Eskimos eat and live they can never 

 relax efforts to provide. Therefore I felt it my 

 duty, when occasion offered, as it did now, to aid 

 them in accumulating stores for future use as recom- 

 pense for the time they had devoted to me. This, 

 then, was my reason for killing ducks in the manner 

 which I shall describe, and it will not be necessary to 

 explain to sportsmen that it was disagreeable, neces- 

 sary work, possessing no attractions to the hunter. 

 But I am making a complete record of my Arctic 

 life and hunting, and even incidents of this character 

 cannot be omitted if the record is to be an honest one. 

 Ducks and geese conceal their nests very cun- 

 ningly, and rarely were we able to see the birds upon 

 them until they flew at our approach. When a duck 

 left its nest Portlooner set his steel trap directly in 

 front of the nest. Ducks seldom rise on the wing 

 without a short preliminary run, and in making the 

 run were pretty certain to be caught. When all of the 

 traps were set, we marked with small piles of stones 

 the places where other ducks or geese rose from their 

 nests, and later I returned and killed the birds after 

 they resumed their nests. My method was to ap- 

 proach as nearly as possible and shoot them on the 

 nests with my .22 automatic. In this manner I se- 

 cured thirty-eight ducks and six brants in addition 

 to those trapped by Portlooner and the twenty-nine 

 which I originally killed on the wing. Later, as I 

 lay in my sleeping-bag, countless thousands passed 

 over my head in a continuous stream, and I was sorry 

 I had not an ample supply of shot cartridges, for I 



