120 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
This method of snavring deer is illustrated in figure 35, which repre- 
sents a boot-sole creaser from Nushagak. It is etched on three sides, 
and on the side shown are two reindeer caught in Tawhide snares, with 
another snare still set between them. 
The white bear is found only at very rare intervals cn the mainland 
south of Bering strait. A single young white bear was killed a few 
miles south of St Michael during my residence there, and was said to 
have been the first one seen in many years. On St Lawrence island they 
are frequently seen on the ice during winter and spring. The hunters 
there kill them by concealing themselves among the ice hummocks in 
the course the bear is pursuing, and as he passes shoot him in the head 
between the eye and the ear. This spot is chosen on account of the 
thinness of the skull, as the .44-caliber breech-loading guns which 
they use have not power enough to kill the bear if shot in any other 
part. I saw a great many skulls of these animals on the island named, 
and gll of them had bullet holes in the same place. 
From Point Hope to Point Barrow bears are not uncommon, and a 
number of Eskimo living along the coast from Bering strait northward 
have been frightfully disfigured by encounters with them.. A man 
from Point Hope told me of an encounter with one of these animals 
that took place near his vil- 
lage in the winter of 1880, 
Two men left the village and 
FiG, 35—Etching on ivory, showing deer snares (§). went out on the sea ice dur- 
ing the night to set their nets 
for seals; while they were setting the nets, at some distance from each 
other, one of them heard the snow cracking under the feet of a white 
bear which was approaching. The hunter was without weapons of any 
kind, and as it was too dark to see the animal he quietly lay down flat 
upon his back on the ice, hoping to escape notice. The bear came 
directly up to him, and stopping, began smelling along his body, until 
finally he pressed his cold muzzle against the hunter’s nose and mouth 
and sniffed vigorously several times. As he did this the hunter held 
his breath until his head swam. Suddenly the bear heard the other 
hunter moving about and raised his head to listen; then he sniffed at 
the hunter’s face again and started off on a trot toward the other man. 
When the bear had been gone a few moments the prostrate hunter 
sprang to his feet and fled for his life toward the shore, hearing the 
death cry of his comrade as he ran. About noon the next day, when 
the sun came to the horizon, the villagers armed themselves and went 
out on the ice, accompanied by the wife of the missing hunter. They 
reached the place at dawn and found the bear still feasting on the 
hunter’s remains. The wife fired the first shot at him, followed by the 
others, and the bear fell; then the woman drew a hunting knife and 
rushing at the bear slashed its sides until the skin hung in shreds, 
when she stopped from exhaustion. , 
