260 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
word in Greenlandic may indicate that their ancestors once used the 
large wolf-killer, when they lived where wolves were found. The defi- 
nition of uju/kuak, the ordinary word for the gull-catcher (see below )—in 
the Gronlandske Ordbog—is the only evidence we have of the use of this 
contrivance in Greenland. This is one of the several cases in which we 
only learn of the occurrence of customs, ete., noted at Point Barrow, in 
Greenland, by finding the name of the thing in question defined in the 
dictionary. 
Traps.—Foxes are caught in the winter by deadfalls or steel traps 
(niinori/a), set generally along the beach, where the foxes are wander- 
ing about in search of carrion thrown up by the sea. In setting the 
deadfalls a little house about 2 feet high is built, in which is placed 
the bait of meat or blubber. A heavy log of driftwood is placed across 
the entrance, with one end raised high enough to allow a fox to pass 
under it, and supported by a regular “figure of four” of sticks. The 
fox can not get at the bait without passing under the log, and in doing 
so he must touch the trigger of the “figure of four” (4), which brings 
down the log across his back. When a steel trap is used it is not 
baited itself, but buried in the snow at the entrance of a similar little 
house, so that the fox can not reach the bait without stepping on the 
plate of the trap and thus springing it. Many foxes are taken with 
such traps in the course of the winter. 
The boys use a sort of snare for catching setting birds. This is 
simply a strip of whalebone made into a slip-noose, which is set over 
the eggs, with the end fastened to the ground, so that the bird is caught 
by the leg. Once or twice, when there was a light snow on the beach, 
we saw a native catching the large gulls as follows: He had a stick of 
hard wood, pointed at each end, to the middle of which was fastened 
one end of a stout string about 6 feet long. The other end was secured 
to a stake driven into the frozen gravel, and the stick wrapped with 
blubber and laid on the beach, with the string carefully hidden in the 
snow. The gull came along, swallowed the lump of blubber, and as 
soon as he-tried to fly away the string made the sharp stick turn like a 
toggle across his gullet, the points forcing their way through, so that 
he was held fast. A similar contrivance, but somewhat smaller and 
made of bone, is used at Norton Sound for catching gulls and murres, 
a number of them being attached to a trawl line and baited with fish. 
Mr. Nelson collected a large number of these.! In regard to the use of 
this contrivance in Greenland, see above under ‘ wolf-killers.” 
Snow-goggles.—The wooden goggles worn to protect the eyes from 
snow-blindness may be considered as accessories to hunting, as they are 
worn chiefly by those engaged in hunting or fishing, especially when 
deer-hunting in the spring on the snow-covered tundra or when in the 
and Figs. 3-8, a series of similar implements from the bone caves of France. 
