30 
Bear sound, south of Blacklead island, and on October 3, 1924, trails of 
two bears were seen in the new snow on Aulatsivik peninsula in Pangnir- 
tung fiord, heading north up the fiord. 
At Pangnirtung in early April, 1926, two cub bear skins were obtained 
from an Eskimo who said he killed the animals late in March, near cape 
Mercy. These skins (Nos. 6230 and 6231) are approximately 32 inches 
long from nose to tail. The pelage is a creamy white, slightly lighter 
below. One skin exhibits, in good light, a pale brown tinge over the dorsal 
region, with the tips of the guard hairs somewhat dusky. The hair over 
the back averages about 60 mm. in length. 
Along the northern coasts of Baffin island, polar bears are only 
occasionally met with in Eclipse sound. Corporal F. Mclnnes states 1 
that during the spring months bears are found in Navy Board inlet. On 
the 1923 Canadian Arctic Expedition, many bears were observed during 
the middle of August, in Lancaster sound. On August 15, six were seen 
on an ice-field north of Admiralty inlet; later the same day, several cubs 
accompanying adults were seen, and individual bears were seen at intervals 
throughout the time of voyaging on Lancaster sound, by far the best 
polar bear region entered during the voyage. Alfred Tremblay (1921, 
pp. 75-78), in March, 1911, killed several polar bears between capes York 
and Crawford. One of these, said to be the largest ever seen by the Eskimo, 
measured more than 11 feet in length from nose to tail, with a height at 
the shoulder of 4§ feet. Its paws were more than 13 inches long. The 
animal is said to have weighed about 1,800 pounds. Tremblay states 
that nine bears, females with their cubs, were killed by Eskimo, in April, 
1913, near Button point, Bylot island; they were frequenting glaciers and 
had dug deep dens in the snow. 
On the 1923 Arctic Expedition, a male bear, killed on August 7 in 
Smith sound, measured 7 feet 2 inches from nose to tail and weighed 900 
pounds. Another male killed on August 12, in Glacier strait, was 7 feet 
long and weighed about 900 pounds. 
J. C. Ross 2 in' 1835 found polar bears at Port Bow T en, Prince Regent 
inlet, on the northwest coast, and Eskimo report that a considerable 
number are still found along the inlet. J. T. Lavoie (1912, p. 94) stated 
that in March, 1911, many bears were observed in Prince Regent inlet 
north of cape Kater and that at one point the ice-covered strait was 
“literally covered with their tracks”. Lavoie (1912, p. 87) states that 
very few polar bears were seen in the districts of Whyte inlet and Agu bay, 
on Fury and Hecla strait. 
Along Hudson strait, polar bears occur sparingly about Resolution 
island and west to Big island, but are still rarer to the west. It is said 
that they never occur in the Amadjuak Bay district. The species is not 
mentioned in the list of mammals observed by the MacMillan expedition 
in the vicinity of cape Dorset and Bowdoin harbour (Allen and Copeland, 
1924). 
Eskimo annually kill a small number of bears along Foxe Channel 
coast, north from cape Dorset, and also on Mill, Salisbury, Nottingham, 
and Southampton islands. Hantzsch (1913, p. 155) states that he saw 
on September 23, 1910, fresh tracks of polar bear at the mouth of Koukjuak 
river on the Foxe Basin coast, and that he also saw bear tracks on November 
Personal communication. 
*Biol. Invest, of the Athahaska-Mackenaie region, by E. A. Preble; N. A. Fauna, No. 27, p. 225 (1908). 
