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fox are known to have been eaten in times of starvation. Beaver are an 
important article of diet during the spring. They are taken by shooting 
after their houses are destroyed, also by traps and in babiche nets. Musk- 
rats are only eaten in the spring, but are much esteemed when fat. Rabbits 
and lynx are roasted whenever caught. Rabbits are found throughout 
the whole of the timber country. They are naturally most important 
for food where other game animals are rare, and particularly where there 
is a scarcity of fish, as on Mackenzie river. For the three-year periods 
when they were the scarcest, the people there had what were called ‘star- 
vation years’. The natives also eat the Arctic hare when possible. Lynx 
vary in numbers according to the number of the rabbits. Bears are not 
held in great esteem. They are a popular ‘medicine’ animal and, conse- 
quently, tabooed to those who have acquired that ‘medicine’. Black 
bears are found everywhere within the timber limits during the summer. 
Richardson bears live on the edge of the timber, in the barrens, on Big 
point, and in Bear mountains. They are seldom attacked because of 
their reputed fierceness and potent ‘medicine’, but are shot if discovered 
during hibernation. Both the wolf and the dog are strongly tabooed 
as food. 
Of the game birds, ducks, loons, and geese are eaten whenever killed, 
but they are hunted chiefly in the spring when there is a shortage of fish. 
Ducks are by far the most important. They arrive at Fort Franklin 
about the first of May, the fish ducks coming last. Ducks are killed most 
easily in the spring, when they are forced to collect on what little open 
water near shore they can find. They are also available during part of 
the summer and autumn, but are harder to get. In the autumn they 
collect in flocks for their southward flight, notably at Willow lake (25 
miles true north of Norman), at the foot of Me Vicar bay, and, to a lesser 
degree, in the lakes between Deerpass and Bell bays, where they are not 
so molested by the Indians. The ducks also collect in great flocks on the 
main lake, where the natives have no adequate means of reaching them. 
Three eider ducks are known to have been killed at Fort Franklin. 
The general information applying to ducks relates also to loons, 
geese, and swans. The catch of geese and swans on Great Bear lake in 
an average year is probably less than one per cent of the game birds con- 
sumed. Geese, however, are killed in some quantities at Willow lake 
during the spring, when there is an opportunity to get close to them, 
but the number is undoubtedly small as compared with ducks. 
The minor birds eaten include spruce hens (Hudson’s grouse), prairie 
chickens (pinnated grouse), ptarmigan, and owls. Gulls are said to be 
‘thrown to the old women’. Fort Franklin is the eastern limit for spruce 
hens. Ptarmigan are not found on the Mackenzie nor in the timber 
in the summer since they breed on the barrens, but occur at the edge of 
the timber at Dease bay. Owls also breed on the barrens, but migrate 
to the timber, particularly in hard winters. 
Birds’ eggs, especially those of waterfowl, are much sought after 
and eaten in the spring. A superstition regarding egg hunting is that 
if a Canada jay’s nest is found with an egg in it, the finder’s relatives 
will all die. It is a peculiarity of that bird, of course, that whereas it is 
common, its eggs are seldom seen. 
