29 
strait, separating Baffin island from Melville peninsula, is narrow it is not 
unlikely that the animal occurs on Baffin island in the vicinity of the 
strait. 
The following annotated list of 25 species records all the mammals 
known to occur on Baffin island and in adjacent seas. The nomenclature 
followed is that adopted by Miller (1924). The identification and study 
of specimens, and the preparation of the following list, were made with 
the aid and counsel of R. M, Anderson. 
* 
1. Thalarctos maritimus maritimus (Phipps), polar bear. 
Eskimo: Nannok ; Nennok, according to Hantzsch. 
Polar bears occur on all coasts of Baffin island and in largest 
numbers on the east, north, and northwest coasts. They seem to be most 
numerous along the shores north of Cumberland gulf in the vicinity of 
cape Mercy, Exeter sound, and Merchants bay. 
According to the Eskimo, polar bears are rarely present in winter 
along the east coast and occur in largest numbers in April when the males, 
after spending the winter hunting seals on the ice of Baffin bay and Davis 
strait, approach the shores and the females with their cubs leave their 
hibernating quarters. The Merchants Bay Eskimo state that adult bears 
and cubs are fairly common every spring in that region and increase in 
numbers southward. Cape Mercy is a great bear resort as the animals 
coming south on the drifting ice during spring and early summer land 
thereabouts and afterwards slowly wander northwards along the coast and 
over the pack-ice. The 1925 Canadian Arctic Expedition observed, in 
July, a number of bears on moving ice-fields off the cape. 
A number of years ago, a party of four Eskimo, during three weeks 
in March, shot fourteen bears in Exeter sound. On another occasion, 
during one week in March, three hunters secured thirteen bears. The 
natives assert that every March offers about the same opportunities. 
In 1924, in Merchants bay, the first adult male was shot on March 19, 
near Durban island; on March 21, two cubs only a few days old were 
captured; on March 27, a cub was taken in a snow den on Padloping 
island; on September 30, an adult and a well-grown juvenile were shot; 
and on November 13, five adult bears were killed. The Eskimo state 
that every year, during October and November, bears may be seen frequent- 
ing the shifting ice-floes, but that when the ice becomes fixed the bears 
travel seaward to where open water may be found and are rarely if ever 
observed in Merchants bay during December, January, and February. 
Kumlien (1879, p. 48) writes: 
“It is a rare occurrence to find a bear any distance up Cumberland sound, they are 
common about cape Mercy, Shaumeer (Saumia) and Nugumeute, but seldom stray above 
Niantilic, or the Kekerten islands. Below Niantilic, on the southern side of Bear sound, 
in the vicinity of what the Eskimo call Okaglik and Kokaluyah, they are quite plenty. 
Many are captured here every year, especially in the spring, by the Eskimo, who fearlessly 
attack them in their frail kyacks, but are afraid of them on the ice or land. From Nugu- 
meute to Hudson straits they appear to be even more plenty, and westward, in the 
northern waters of Hudson bay, whalemen often procure seventy or more skins in a season." 
Hantzsch (1913, p. 155) recorded the presence of a bear in the vicinity 
of Kekerten islands in 1908. Though bears rarely proceed any distance 
up Cumberland gulf, and of late years have been exceedingly scarce towards 
the head of the gulf, a small male bear was killed on August 26, 1924, in 
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