MURDOCH. } HUNTING. 263 
other end is cut into ornamental notches, and ornamented with an incised 
pattern colored with red ocher, consisting of conventional lines and the 
figure of a reindeer on each face, a buck on one face and a doe on the 
other. Tied by a bit of sinew to the uppermost notch are four legs and 
three wing tips (three or four primaries, with the skin at the base) of the 
buti-breasted sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis). This was evidently 
Fic. 263.—Marker for meat cache. 
longer when new and perhaps was originally used for a seal indicator 
(which see above). Fig. 263 (No. 89453 [1581] from Utkiavwin) is a 
similar rod, the tip of which has been brought to an edge so that it can 
be used as a “ feather-setter” in feathering arrows. The remains of two 
wing tips of some small bird are tied to one of the notches at the upper 
end. 
METHODS OF HUNTING. 
Haying now described in detail all the weapons and other implements 
used in hunting, Iam prepared to give an account of the time and 
methods of pursuing the different kinds of game. 
The polar bear.—Bears are occasionally met with in the winter by 
the seal hunters, roaming about the ice fields at some distance from the 
shore. They usually run from a man and often do not make a stand 
even when wounded. Occasionally, however, a bear rendered bold by 
hunger comes in from the sea and makes an attack on some native’s 
storehouse of seal meat even in the midst of the village. Of course, in 
such a case he has very little chance of escape, as the natives all turn 
out with their rifles and cut off his retreat. Two bears were killed in 
this way at Utkiavwin in the winter of 188283. The bear is always 
attacked with the rifle, often with the help of dogs to bring him to bay. 
The umiaks when walrus hunting sometimes meet with bears among 
the loose ice. If the bear is caught in the water, there is very little 
difficulty in paddling up close enough to him to shoot him. 
The wolf—The wolf can hardly be considered a regular object of 
pursuit. Wolves are often seen and occasionally shot by deer hunters 
in the winter, and one family in the summer of 1883 managed to catch 
a couple of young wolf cubs alive, somewhere between Point Barrow 
and the Colville. These they brought home with them and kept them 
picketed on the tundra just outside of the village, with a little kennel 
of snow to shelter them, carefully feeding them till winter, when their 
fur had grown long enough for use in trimming hoods. They were then 
