ITCBDOCH.I HUNTING REINDEER. 2fi5 



reindeer, so that wedid not leani where tlicy wmi to. When the fawns 

 are perhaps a month okl a small party, say a yonni; man and liis u ifc, 

 sometimes makes a short journey to the eastward to iiKnuir tawii sldns 

 for clothing. They say that the fiiwns at llds aj;c can he canuiif liy 

 running them down. During the summci' aiiain the d<M r cumi- down 

 to the coast in small numbers, takiug to tlic water in tlic lagoons, or 

 even in the sea, when the flies become troublesome. 



Sometimes in warm, calm weather the flies are so nnmerons tliat 

 the deer is driven perfectly frantic, and runs along without looking 

 where he is going, so that, as the natives say. a hunter who places 

 himself in the deer's path has no diflficulty in shooting him. Flies 

 were unusually scarce both siunmers that we were at the station, so 

 that we never had an oppoitxinity of seeing this doue. When a deer 

 is seen swimming he is ])iirsued with the kaiak and lanced in the man- 

 ner already descrilied. lu July, 188.3, one man fi'om TJtkiavwin made 

 a short journey iuUmd, '•carrv-iug " his kaiak fi-om lake to lake, and 

 killed two deer in this way without firing a shot. I believe tbis metliod 

 of hunting is frequently practiced by the paities who go east for trading 

 in the sunmier, and those who \'isit the rivers for the jmrjiose of hunting. 



The natives seemed to expect deer in summer at the lagoons, as 

 along the isthmus between Ime'kpun and Imekpuniglu they had set up 

 a range of stakes, evidently intended to turn the deer up the beach 

 where he wovdd be .seen ti-om the camp at Perniju. Only one deer, 

 however, came down either summer, and he escaped without being seen. 

 This contrivance of .setting up stakes to guide the deer in a certain 

 direction is very commonly used by the Eskimo. Egede give.s a 

 curious description of tlie practice in Greenland in his day: They 

 •'chase them [i. e., the reindeer] by Clap-hunting, setting upon them on 

 all sich's and smronnding them with all tlieir Women and Children to 

 force them into Detih-sand Narrow Passages, where the Men armed lay 

 in wait for them and kill them. And when they have not People 

 enough to surround them, then they put up white Poles (to make up 

 the Number that is wanted) witli Pieces of Turf to head them, which 

 frightens the Deer and hinders it from escaping."' PI. 4. of the same 

 work, is a very curious illustration of this style of hunting. 



A similar method is practiced at the Coppermine River, where the 

 deer are led by ranges of turf toward the spot where the archer 

 is hidden.^ Franklin also m>ticed between the Mackenzie and the 

 Colville similar ranges of driftwood stumps leading across the plain 

 to two cairns on a hill,-' and Thomas Simi)son mentions a similar 

 range near Herschel Island,^ and double rows of tiuf to represent men 

 leading down to a small lake near Point Pitt, for the imrpose of 

 driving the deer into the water where they could he speared.' This is 



• Greenland, p. 62. 



'Fnmklili, 1st Expfil.. vol. 2, p. 181. 



»2<lEsp«I.. P.1.-J7. 



