Hunting and Fishing 



145 



CHAPTER XI 



HUNTING AND FISHING 



On the land, as we have seen, the whole hfe of the Copper Eskimos is devoted 

 to hunting game animals, and fishing for lake trout and salmon in the lakes and 

 streams. Naturally the natives have adopted many curious devices in their 

 endless quest for food. Their principal hunting weapon, apart from the harpoon 

 used in sealing, is the bow. Back says that the inland natives make a most 

 effective use of the sling.^ I never saw a regular sling amongst the Copper 

 ■Eskimos, though the children often use their tump-lines, kakautak, for throwing 

 stones at birds; they call a sUng illuktak. Some of the natives have seen the 

 bolas among the inland people; they described it correctly enough, but could 

 not say how it was used. All their own hunting on land, whether for big game 

 or for small, is done with the bow. Collinson thought their marksmanship 

 was very good; he state.s that "on one occasion the natives were induced to 

 show their skill by shooting at the mast-head vane from before the windlass. 

 I did not see the practice, but M^as told it was extremely good, the vane being 

 hit three or four times, although it was unsteady."^ Parry found the natives 



Fig. 



(Photo by R. M. Anderson) 

 46. A Bathurst inlet native shooting with bow and arrow 



of Wager inlet tolerable archers. "We tried their skill in archery by getting 

 them to shoot at a mark for a prize, though with bows in extremely bad order 

 on account of the frost, and their hands very cold. The mark was two of their 

 spears stuck upright in the snow, their breadth being three inches. At twenty 

 yards they struck this every time; at thirty, sent the arrows always within an 

 inch or two of it; and at forty or fifty yards, I should think would generally 

 hit a fawn if the animal stood still."' Mr. Stefansson says that "tolerable 

 accuracy, such as is needed in shooting birds, is not secured beyond a range of 

 twenty five or thirty yards. Against caribou the effective range varies with 



•Back, p. 381. 

 'CoUinson, p. 275. 

 'Parry, Vol. IV, p. II. 



23335—10 



