90 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



some of the islands there are areas which are practically desert and bear 

 only a few mosses, lichens, and scattered plants. 



These tundras are the natural grazing grounds of caribou, reindeer, and 

 musk-ox. The musk-ox go farthest north, being found even in Ellesmere 

 Island and northern and eastern Greenland, and they are confined to 

 the American Arctic. Neither animal — for of the three caribou and 

 reindeer are essentially the same — leaves the Arctic in winter. They are 

 natives of the north and do not suffer from the winter cold and light 

 snow. Their only enemy besides man is the Arctic wolf. It preys 

 successfully on the reindeer and is less likely to attack the musk-ox, 

 which not only can fight the wolf with its sharp horns but finds safety in 

 numbers. The wolf seldom cares to attack a herd. 11 



Musk-ox and reindeer are complementary to one another in their food 

 requirements. The reindeer prefers grass and willow shoots in summer 

 and the lichens known as reindeer and Iceland moss in winter, while the 

 musk-ox eats grass and shoots at all seasons. Now grass and shoots are 

 more abundant than lichens on the Arctic tundras, so that the number of 

 reindeer are limited by the winter feed, while much grass remains surplus 

 and could be utilised by musk-ox. The relatively restricted area of the 

 musk-ox to-day in Arctic Canada is solely due to the ease with which it is 

 hunted. Now that it is protected by law, there is no reason why its 

 range should not increase considerably. 



The reindeer has been domesticated from early times in the Old 

 World, even if we cannot be sure that the reindeer of Stone Age man in 

 Europe were tamed and not merely wild flocks. The prosperity and very 

 existence of most peoples of the Old World tundras from Lapland to 

 Bering Strait to-day depend on the reindeer. Lapp, Zirian, Samoyede, 

 Ostyak, Tungus, Chukchee, and Koryak are all reindeer breeders to a 

 greater or less degree, and the reindeer provides them with meat, milk, 

 clothing, and leather. They alone are the prosperous tribes, and their 

 prosperity, as is the way of prosperity, causes them to look down on the 

 hunting and fishing tribes such as the Yuchagir, Kamchadals, and some 

 Samoyedes, who have a hard struggle to survive. Yet it should be noted 

 that even among the Chukchee, who are the most successful reindeer 

 breeders in Siberia, the reindeer is only partially domesticated, and the 

 herds often run wild owing to the interbreeding with wild deer. The 

 herds of the Koryaks also frequently revert to the wild state. 



In the New World, including Greenland, the caribou has never been 

 domesticated. The Eskimo are chiefly dependent on sea mammals and 

 fish. Sea mammals yield a greater supply of oil, their only source of fuel 

 and light, than caribou and musk-ox. To the Eskimo, land animals are 

 a secondary consideration, valuable in the summer nomadism as offering 

 a change of food and variety of occupation, but rarely now the staple of 

 their existence. Even the Caribou Eskimo, inland dwellers to the west of 

 Hudson Bay, have never tamed the reindeer, but exist by hunting the 

 wild herds. 



In his well-known efforts to dispel the prevalent misconception about 



11 The Canadian Government now offer £6 per pelt for wolves destroyed in the 

 North-West Territories. The skins find a ready market. In 1926 about a thousand 

 wolves were thus accounted for. 



