54 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



with any. I have seen pure white specimens during all the summer 

 months, and occasionally one about half-gray. The Eskimo firmly 

 believe that the lungs of the hare applied fresh to a boil or sore of any 

 kind is a sure cure. The specimens I examined in Cumberland were 

 much smaller than Greenland specimens. 







8. Rangifer tarandus, (Linnd) Bd. 



"Tuktoo," Cumberland Eskimo. 



The reindeer are found in considerable numbers on both sides of Cum- 

 berland Sound, but by far the greater number on the western shore. It 

 is no rare instance to find them during the summer months on the sea- 

 coast 5 they seem to delight in feeding upon the fuci exposed at low 

 tide. In winter they retire to the larger valleys and go farther inland, 

 being seldom seen on the coast at this season of the year. 



The Eskimo go reindeer-hunting every summer, commonly during the 

 months of July, August, arid September. At this season they make 

 quite extensive excursions inland, where the deer are more abundant 

 and ntuch more easily procured. Within the last few years they are 

 reported as less common on the Penny Peninsula ; but I hear of no appar- 

 ent diminution in their numbers to the west and southwest, especially 

 toward Lake Kennedy, where they are reported as very abundant. 



Before the introduction of firearms among the Eskimo by the whale- 

 men, they took advantage of the habits of the deer in coming down to 

 'the coast, and drove them into the water, where they were easily cap- 

 tured with a kyack. The Eskimo bring the skins back with them to 

 then? winter encampment, having cached the meat for the ostensible 

 purpose of returning for it in winter. This seldom happens, however, 

 and the wolves generally make way with it. It is said that when a herd 

 is first approached by a hunting party that has been living on the sea- 

 coast, they scent them along way off, but that they soon lose this power 5 

 the fact being, I take it, that the peculiar odor of the salt-water has left 

 the Eskimo. During the winter they herd together in large droves, and 

 when a suitable valley is found paw up the snow for a considerable 

 extent, till it looks as if a herd of swine had been rooting in the snow. 

 These droves are continually beset by packs of wolves, which keep a vig- 

 ilant watch for any that unluckily stray out of the herd, for such a one 

 is immediately attacked and run down. It is seldom, however, that the 

 wolves can do much damage to the herd when they keep together, as 

 they form a ch cle, with the weaker ones in the centre, and can thus keep 

 the wolves at bay. 



