THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 247 



as set forth by certain writers that in midsummer, which would be 

 July or August, caribou are poor simply because of their persecu- 

 tion by insect pests, chiefly mosquitoes and botflies. The bulls at 

 this season are approaching their fattest, even though the cows, 

 upon which exclusively some authorities apparently base their 

 reasoning, happen to be very poor. Since all caribou are greatly 

 annoyed by mosquitoes and flies, it is reasonable to assume that they 

 would be fatter if these pests were absent, but fat they are in spite 

 of them if age and sex are right. 



Another point of evidence that the thinness of caribou in sum- 

 mer is not primarily dependent on mosquitoes is that the cycle of 

 fatness and leanness is about the same in the most mosquito- 

 infested parts of the mainland as in the more northerly islands of 

 the Canadian Archipelago where mosquitoes are so rare that in one 

 island, Lougheed Island, we saw only one mosquito all summer. 

 But in these northerly islands the caribou fatten a few days earlier 

 and become a little fatter in proportion to the total body weight. 

 That a caribou may be as fat in Lougheed Island on the first of 

 August as it would be at Great Bear Lake the middle of August 

 is probably due to the absence of mosquitoes in Lougheed Island; 

 for the feed, although good, does not appear to be any better in 

 the more northerly lands. 



The hunting and exploring trip into the interior of Banks 

 Island was an interesting and delightful one for Storkerson and me. 

 Here was a beautiful country of valleys everywhere gold and 

 white with flowers or green with grass or mingled greens and brown 

 with grass and lichens, except some of the hill tops which were 

 rocky and barren. These hills differed in coloring, especially as 

 seen from a distance, not so much because of the colors of the rock 

 as because different vegetation prevails in different kinds of soil 

 and different lichens on different rocks. There were sparkling 

 brooks that united into rivers of crystal clearness, flowing over 

 gravel bottoms. When we came to a stream we usually followed 

 along, whether fo^r a few hundred yards or several miles, until we 

 came to a place where the river either split into branches or widened 

 out. Here we took the packs off our dogs, for their short legs 

 unfitted them for keeping a pack dry while fording, and with our 

 good Eskimo boots keeping our feet dry we would wade across, 

 the dogs swimming behind us. Heather was most abundant, and so 



