124 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 191S-18 



of feasting alternate with days of fasting according to their failure or success. 

 No fowl of the air, no creature of the land, no fish in the water is too great or 

 too small to attract their notice at this time. They knock down ptarmigan and 

 longspurs with stones or arrows, they shoot the ducks on their nests and carry 

 off the eggs, they spear or catch with nooses the squirrels that burrow in the 

 ground, and they spear or catch with their hands the tiny fish that hide under 

 the stones on the margins of the lakes. With their bows and arrows they 

 fearlessly attack brown bears and wolves, while polar bears they run down on 

 foot with the help of their dogs and stab them with improvised pikes. In 

 1915, for example, an Eskimo named Komak spent the summer months in the 

 country between Dolphin and Union strait and the Rae river. Two other 

 families kept him company; sometimes the party separated out for a few days, 

 then joined together again. They caught a great quantity of fish, some with 

 spears, others by jagging with long rakes; in addition they killed a wolf and a 

 brown bear, several caribou, and a large number of squirrels. The squirrels 

 they caught with nooses, which were sometimes set to operate by themselves, 

 sometimes operated by hand; but many, too, were killed with improvised 

 spears, made by lashing points of caribou antler to walking-sticks. 



Even in summer, however, the caribou wander in large herds occasionally 

 in some of the more fertile valleys and plains. The Eskimos congregate there 

 also, and organize hunting expeditions in concert. If the natives have kayaks 

 they drive the caribou into the lakes and spear them in the water (this is the 

 commonest method inland between Bathurst inlet and the Coppermine) ; but 

 if kayaks are lacking the deer are driven down a hastily improvised compound 

 towards the hunters, who are concealed in pits in the narrow pass at the end. 

 In such regions six or a dozen families may stay together all through the summer. 

 More often, however, the Eskimos break up into smaller parties and move along 

 a few miles apart, the approximate location of each party being known to all 

 the rest. Then they can all unite again whenever an exceptionally large herd 

 is encountered and concerted action promises greater booty. 



Their hunting often takes them long distances. In recent years the presence 

 of white men has caused the natives of Coronation gulf to gravitate more and 

 more towards the north end of Great Bear lake. Even the Eskimos of Bathurst 

 Inlet make their way overland to this region, along a chain of lakes where caribou 

 and musk-oxen abound during the summer months. Rivers and large lakes 

 are crossed in kayaks, which serve the natives also for their hunting.^ Caribou 

 have always been plentiful around Great Bear lake, but it is only within the last 

 few years that this region has become the common hunting ground for natives 

 from every part of Coronation gulf. Probably half a century ago the Pallirmiut 

 kept as a rule to the Rae river basin, and the Bathurst inlet natives to the country 

 north of Backs river and east of the Coppermine, while the natives of the Copper- 

 mine basin itself kept for the most part to the lower reaches of the river, and 

 only ascended as far as the Dismal lakes when they wanted to procure timber 

 for making their sleds and tables. Fear of the Indians kept them away, and 

 hence the early explorers, Franklin, Richardson, Dease, and Simpson, saw no 

 traces of them south of Bloody fall. As soon as white men settled on Great Bear lake, 

 however, the natives flocked thither from all directions, not only in mid-summer 

 during the regular hunting period, when they packed their possessions on their 

 backs, but even in the spring, as soon as the sealing season ended, while they could 

 still travel inland by sled. The Eskimos who visited the Roman CathoUc priests 

 at Lake Rouvier in 1913 had travelled by sled from the mouth of the Copper- 

 mine in the late spring, and they returned in the same way in the fall. In 

 June, 1916, again, a large party of natives from various tribes, anticipating 



'See Stefansson, Anthrop. Papers, A.M.N.H., Vol. XIV, pt. I, p. 81. 



