442 HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 



investigate the knocking, and presently returned with 

 the second officer of the Canadian steamer Arctic; 

 Captain Bernier, the commander, had sent him to 

 inquire who we were. 



All of us joined our visitor at once to pay our 

 respects to Captain Bernier, who gave us a cordial 

 welcome and entertained us royally. The Arctic had 

 spent the previous winter at Melville Island in the 

 interests of his government. They had found the 

 island abounding in game musk-oxen, deer and 

 hares and Captain Bernier presented us with a 

 quarter of musk-ox which had been killed only two 

 weeks before. 



Canada lays claim to pretty much all of the Arctic 

 region in general, and to the islands lying between 

 her continental possessions and the Pole specifically, 

 and requires a license to hunt or fish in these regions, 

 or trade with the natives inhabiting them. One of 

 the duties imposed upon Captain Bernier was a strict 

 enforcement of this law. I was a poacher, therefore, 

 in the eyes of Canada, though I had known nothing 

 of this far-reaching law until Captain Bernier in- 

 formed me of its existence. Never have I willingly 

 poached, and so in exchange for fifty dollars I re- 

 ceived the requisite license from the Captain, per- 

 mitting me to hunt, chase, kill and obtain anything 

 from hares or trout to bears or whales; and to ex- 

 change, barter and trade with the said and aforesaid 

 natives of the wide and limitless Arctic dominions 

 of Canada with a free and law-abiding hand. I was 

 very glad to get this document, and I felt now, at 



