510 THE CENTRAL ESKIMO. 



tlie winter. The natives seek these holes and kill the bear before it 



The chase of the mi;sk ox and that of the bear have become much 

 easier since the introduction of firearms in Arctic America, and the 

 Eskimo can kill their game without encountering the same dangers 

 as formerly. 



HITNTING OF SMALL GAME. 



Lastly, I meution the methods used in catching smaller animals, 

 such as wolves, foxes, and hares. Wolves are only pursued when 

 they become too troublesome. Frequently they linger about the 

 villages in winter, and when everybody is asleep they attack the 

 store rooms or the dogs, which have the greatest fear of this voracious 

 animal; for, although dogs will brave the bear, they do not venture 

 to resist a single wolf. If a pack of these beasts linger about the 

 village for'weeks preying upon the native stores, traps are finally 

 built or the Eskimo lie in ambush near a bait to kill them. The 

 wolf trap is similar to the one used to catch deer. The hole dug in 

 the snow is about eight or nine feet deep and is covered with a 

 slab of snow, on the center of which a bait is laid. A wall is built 

 around it which compels the wolf to leap across it before he can 

 reach the bait. By so doing he breaks through the roof and, as the 

 bottom of the pit is too narrow to afford him jumping room, he is 

 caught and killed there (Rae I, p. 135). 



A remarkable method of killing wolvfes has been desciibed by 

 Klutschak (p. 192) and confirmed by the Eskimo of Cumberland 

 Sound. A sharp knifi' is siiimrcd with dfer's bLu.Kl and sunk into 

 the snow, the edge only prdli-iuliiii;-. Tin' wohcs lick tlic knife and 

 cut their tongues so st-vi'ivly as to lilccd to deatli. Anotliin- method 

 is to roll a strip of whalebone, about two feet long, in a coil, which 

 is tied up with sinews. At each end a small metal edge is attached to 

 thi' wlialrbone. This strip, wrapped in a piece of lilulilxT or meat, 

 is l;ii1|mm1 down by the hungry wolf. As it is di-rsliMl the sinews 

 avr (lissulvrd and the elastic strap is opened and ti'ai-s the stomach 

 of the animal. A very ingenious traji is described by Parry (II. p. 

 514): 



It consists i)f a siiiiill liouse built of ice, at one end of which a door, made of the 

 same pleiitilul mati rial, is fitted to slide up and down in a groove; to theupiter part 

 of this a Hill is attac IhmI and, passing over the roof, is led down into the trap at the 

 inner end. and there held by slippiiiL; an c\ r in the end of it over a peg of ice left for 

 thepurix)se. Over the peg, howi\( i . is |,m \ ionsly placed a loose grummet, to which 

 the bait is fastened, and a false ri>ol plan .1 i>\ir all to hide the line. The moment 

 the animal drags at the bait the gruniuiel slips off the |« ^;. liiin,<;inn with it the 

 line that held up the door, and this falling dowii closes the tia|i and sicui'es him. 



Foxes are usually caught in traps. An ice liousi' aiioiit six feet 

 high is built of hummocks, which are cut down with the point of 

 the spear. It .is covered with ice slabs, only a hole in the center 



