liXPKlMTION TO POINT HARROW, ALASKA. 'J'J 



from January on, they were continually secu and reported, and their trucks anil the places \rbcro 

 they liad scraped away tlie snow to get at tliainoss were frequently .scon. 



The natives from the village go out on snow-shoes to hunt them, and when a herd of deer is 

 seen the hunter moves straight towards them at a rapid pace. When the deer begin to run the 

 hunter rims after them as fast as he can, trying to keep them in sight. His pertinacity is gener- 

 ally too much tor the curiosity of the deer, and in a short time one or more of them will usually 

 swerve from the line of llight and gradually circle back to see what this is that is following them 

 so closely. 



The hunter generally opens fire as soon as the deer gets within five or six hundred yards and 

 keeps it up till ho either kills the deer or frightens it out of range. Strange as it may seem, a 

 good many deer are obtained in this way. The natives are very lavish of their ammunition, and 

 by their reckless shooting have rendered the deer very wild. 



Most of the deer obtained by the natives, however, are killed along the valleys of the large 

 rivers, Kuaru, Meade Kiver, and Ikpikpnng, which empty into the Arctic Ocean east of Point 

 Barrow. 



Many of the natives go in to these rivers, 50 to 100 miles to the south and southeast, as soon 

 as enough snow has fallen to make sledging practicable, and 1 there remain camped in snow huts 

 until the days grow too short for hunting. At this season the deer are qnite plenty in this region, 

 and go in large herds. Captain Hereudeen describes the alluvial flats of Meade Kiver as "looking 

 like a cattle-yard" from their tracks. 



The. Eskimos seem to be of the opinion that most of the deer leave this region and go further 

 inland when the winter night sets in, returning about the first of February. 



The great season for deer hunting is in the months of February and March. With the return 

 of the sun, about the last week in January, most of the natives of both villages start off for the 

 rivers, and are to be found camped in small parties, consisting of two or three families, over a 

 large extent of country. They stay until the end of March, or sometimes as late as the middle of 

 April, and secure a good many deer. 



Two men who were hunting for the station in the spring of 1883 killed upwards of ninety, while 

 they were out. Most of these deer are shot with the rifle, but a few are still taken in pitfalls dug in 

 the snow-drifts, as described by Captain Maguire, of the English depot-ship Plover, iu his report 

 of his first winter at Point Barrow, 1852-'.j3. 



A female killed January 30, 1883, contained a fcctus about six inches long. Large numbers 

 of well-developed embryos are brought in from the spring deer-hunt by the natives, who consider 

 them a great delicacy. They are also very fond of the contents of the rectum. 



16. ELEPHAS .' sp. 



MAMMOTH (Kilt'g'wa). 



Much fossil ivory in a badly decayed condition is found on the sandbars of Meade River, and 

 the natives have a good many implements of a much better quality of ivory. This, however, was 

 probably obtained from, the Nunataugmeun. 



The natives had many stories about bones of the Kiligwa, "the great dead reindeer''; "there 

 are no longer any more on earth, only their bones remain/' We endeavored to get some of the 

 hunting parties to bring us in sonic of these bones, but we, did not succeed in obtaining any. 



17. BELUGA sp. 



WHITE WHALE 



White W r hales were never very plenty near the station, but large schools occasionally passed 

 up within sight of the shore during the season of open water. 



A school of a hundred or more passed up within 200 yards of the beach September 28, 1881, 

 and then turned and went back again. There were many gray individuals in this school. 



The whaling umialm captured one or two each season we were at the station, and each year as 

 soon as there was open water between the land-tloe and the beach a large herd passed up to the 

 northeast. 



