308 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



which are said to have appeared in East Greenland "rather 

 suddenly" at about the time of the disappearance of the cari- 

 bou. This, however, may be only part of the reason. Quite 

 possibly overhunting had much to do with it, or there may 

 have been other contributory causes. 



From an economic standpoint, the Greenland caribou is an 

 important asset to the Eskimo and white inhabitants of that 

 country and one that should be exploited with care. For a 

 great many years the export of caribou hides to Denmark has 

 been going on, to an extent that was evidently unwarranted 

 by the size of the herds. Jacobi (1931) quotes figures showing 

 a decline in the numbers during part of last century. It is 

 said that 37,000 caribou were killed in Greenland in 1839; 

 from 1841 to 1850 an average of 13,900 hides were exported; 

 from 1851 to 1860, an average of 5,667 yearly; from 1860 to 

 62, the average yearly number was below 1,000; and since 

 1862, below 100. In 1891, none was shipped. Nevertheless, 

 there seems to be some evidence of an increase in numbers 

 locally at the close of the last century. 



"Among land mammals the reindeer is the most important 

 object of hunting to the Eskimos. The meat is eaten, and the 

 fat is used, for instance, as cfeam for coffee, and the contents 

 of the paunch are considered a special delicacy; the skins are 

 used as underlayers on sleeping platforms and for sleeping 

 bags and garments, the antlers for hunting implements, the 

 sinews for thread" (Jensen, 1928). Apparently caribou hunt- 

 ing is a summer occupation in South Greenland, when the 

 Eskimo and their families seek the great plateaux in the neigh- 

 borhood of the inland ice, and having selected their camp sites 

 the men carry on the hunting till about the first of September, 

 when they return to their dwellings on the outer coast. In the 

 Etah region the hunting season is apparently in October. 

 Since 1924 this pursuit has been somewhat regulated by the 

 government in South Greenland. It has forbidden the hunting 

 of caribou or molesting of the calves between May 20 and July 

 20, and during the open season no more animals may be killed 

 than can be utilized on the spot or taken care of for future use 

 by the hunters. Obviously these animals are of great impor- 

 tance in the economy of the Eskimo, to whose use it would 

 seem they should mainly be relegated. Macmillan writes 

 (1918, p. 74) that caribou meat "is lamentably lacking in 



