730 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL; XXXII. 
an ornament. Some, at least, of these ermines are caught near 
the villages. But of all the fur-bearing animals, the most 
abundant is the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus). During the winter 
the snow was covered with their tracks, which were sometimes 
noticed far out on the ice, where they had probably been 
playing the jackal to the bears. They are, however, so exceed- 
ingly shy and so well protected by their white coats that they 
were seldom seen at this season. In summer they were 
frequently seen quartering the ground like a dog, hunting in 
search of birds’ nests, and, when alarmed, ran with exceeding 
swiftness, seeming barely to touch the ground. They were, in 
general, pretty widely scattered over the country, but occasion- 
ally congregated in great numbers where carcasses had been 
washed ashore. If a reindeer were killed that could not be 
brought in overnight, it had to be carefully covered up with 
slabs of snow, or the foxes made short work of it. The natives 
took many of them in winter by building little houses of snow. 
in which they placed a bait, burying a steel trap in the snow at 
the threshold, or arranging a deadfall so as to be sprung by 
any animal forcing his way through the narrow entrance. Our 
trader obtained a large number of white fox skins, mostly in 
fine condition, with very heavy thick fur. Among them were 
one or two “blue ” skins also in fine winter pelage. 
The reindeer of this region is the well-known barren ground 
caribou (Rangifer tarandus granlandicus), known to all Eski- 
mos as twktu. This animal did not come down to the coast 
near Point Barrow in any numbers. Straggling individuals and 
small herds were occasionally seen during the summer wander- 
ing about the plain, and sometimes came down to the beach or 
took water in the lagoons, especially on calm, sunny days when 
the flies were troublesome. During the rutting season in phe 
latter part of October, a good many were to be seen roaming 
about a few miles inland, but they were excessively wild, 
though the rutting bucks were rather inclined to be curious 
and came towards a man who kept perfectly still. Later in the 
winter, from January on, small herds were often seen a few 
miles from the villages, and we often saw their tracks and the 
places where they had scraped off the snow to get at the moss. 
