18 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



Finally all other localities were brusned aside and we 

 decided to put our hopes on the Arctic Ocean north of 

 Bering Strait, north also of Alaska and eastern Siberia. 



It might be interesting to set down some of the 

 reasons for this choice. 



The big game of the Arctic is polar bear, walrus and 

 musk-ox. WhaHng is, of course, a most thrilling sport, 

 but hardly in the category of game hunting. 



The polar bear inhabits the vast ice-packs extending 

 southward in all directions from the pole, breeding by 

 preference on remote coasts and islands which are seldom 

 ice-free and are therefore immolested. He preys chiefly 

 upon seals and young walrus. We would have reason- 

 able chances of finding this great animal either on the 

 Atlantic or Pacific side of America. 



Of walrus two sorts are recognized by naturaHsts: 

 the Atlantic and the Pacific. They differ in the shape of 

 the head and in other less conspicuous ways, but most 

 strikingly in size. The Pacific variety is larger and bears 

 far longer and heavier ivory tusks than its Atlantic 

 relative. This fact helped to turn us toward the 

 west. 



Musk-oxen are seldom brought to bag by sportsmen. 

 They exist in northeastern and northern Greenland, 

 Grantland, Ellesmere Land and the Arctic coastal coun- 

 tries west to Great Bear Lake, nearly as far west as the 

 Mackenzie River, north of 64 degrees. By no planning 

 could we promise ourselves a shot at these strange 

 cousins of the sheep during a summer himt. Therefore 

 we left them out of our reckoning. 



Other men had made trips to Greenland and the 

 eastern coasts of arctic America. So far as we knew, no 

 sportsmen had yet carried a simple hunting expedition 



