332 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



being the shedding periods for adults of the two sexes. Later, 

 however, in other parts of this land we found caribou horns, so we 

 know it was mere accident that none were noted the first summer. 

 Caribou, then, are in these islands at all seasons. The caribou 

 traces seen that first day were mainly from the months of June 

 and July of the previous year, as we could tell by the size of the 

 footprints of the newborn caribou. There were no large footprints. 

 From this we inferred that the country is generally rocky, for hoofs 

 are large when caribou feed in swampy territory and are worn down 

 smaller the rougher and stonier their pasture. 



In walking about we noticed a lemming running over the 

 ground. One of our dogs named Hans was known for the gingerly 

 way in which he killed lemmings. Indeed whenever he killed small 

 animals he did it in such a way as not to injure the skin and to 

 leave it in good condition for the zoologist. We had just turned 

 Hans loose but he had not j^et seen the lemming when an ivory gull 

 appeared suddenly from nowhere and stooped towards it. Fearful 

 of losing the lemming, we all shouted and ran towards the gull. 

 Our action may have been the cause or it may be their regular 

 habit, but this gull gave the lemming one peck in passing, leaving 

 it paralyzed though not dead, and then flew away as if she had no 

 concern either with the lemming or with us. Foxes have a habit 

 of killing lemmings and leaving them behind if they don't happen 

 to be hungry and it is possible that gulls have a similar habit. We 

 later found on examining the nests of the ivory gulls, not only those 

 occupied at the time but also remnants of the nests of other years, 

 that they feed on lemmings; indeed, it is likely that in these lati- 

 tudes in the early spring the lemming is their only food. 



During the entire time we spent on the new land caribou traces 

 continued to appear more numerous than on Banks Island. The 

 only animals seen, however, were two bulls and these were ob- 

 served only through the glasses at a distance of seven or eight 

 miles. We were picking up seals right in our road and did not 

 care to bother to go after caribou far inland and out of the way. 

 No traces of cattle were on the mainland although we later found 

 one ancient and decayed skull on the island to the south which we 

 have named Eight Bears Island. Lemming signs were in most 

 places numerous and the exgorgitations of owls indicated that at 

 certain seasons they are there to feed on the lemmings. On June 

 19th a jaeger gull appeared and on June 21st four more. Besides 

 ivory gulls there were others of a larger variety, perhaps the Barrow 

 gull, and there were a good many snow buntings and longspurs. 



