Wherever the musk ox is found it is eagerly pursued by the Eskimo. Though dogs are of no use in the chase of the nimble deer, they are of great help in hunting this animal. When a track is found the dogs are let loose and soon overtake the herd. The latter form a circle of defense in which they are kept at bay until the hunter approaches. While the dogs continue attacking and dodging, the musk oxen try to hit them with their horns and do not heed the Eskimo, who assails them at close quarters with a lance to which a thong is frequently attached. When an ox is wounded it makes an impetuous attack on the hunter, who dodges to one side. The dogs being at hand again immediately keep it at bay, thus enabling the hunter to let fly another arrow or throw his lance again. Thus the struggle continues until the greater part of the herd is killed. In rare instances an ox dashes out of the circle and escapes from the pack.
Polar bears are hunted in about the same manner as the musk ox. The Eskimo pursue them in light sledges, and when they are near the pursued animal the traces of the most reliable dogs in the team are cut, when they dash forward and bring the bear to bay. As the hunter gets sufficiently near, the last dogs are let loose and the bear is killed with a spear or with bow and arrow. The best season for bear hunting is in March and April, when the bears come up the fjords and bays in pursuit of the young seals. At this season the she bear is accompanied by the cub which was born in February or March. Its skin and flesh are highly prized by the Eskimo. At some places, for instance at Cape Raper and at Cape Kater on Davis Strait, the she bears dig holes in the snow banks, in which they sleep during the winter. The natives seek these holes and kill the bear before it awakes.
The chase of the musk ox and that of the bear have become much easier since the introduction of firearms in Arctic America, and the Eskimo can kill their game without encountering the same dangers as formerly.
[HUNTING OF SMALL GAME.]
Lastly, I mention the methods used in catching smaller animals, such as wolves, foxes, and hares. Wolves are only pursued when they become too troublesome. Frequently they linger about the villages in winter, and when everybody is asleep they attack the store rooms or the dogs, which have the greatest fear of this voracious animal; for, although dogs will brave the bear, they do not venture to resist a single wolf. If a pack of these beasts linger about the village for weeks preying upon the native stores, traps are finally built or the Eskimo lie in ambush near a bait to kill them. The wolf trap is similar to the one used to catch deer. The hole dug in the snow is about eight or nine feet deep and is covered with a slab of snow, on the center of which a bait is laid. A wall is built around it which compels the wolf to leap across it before he can reach the bait. By so doing he breaks through the roof and, as the bottom of the pit is too narrow to afford him jumping room, he is caught and killed there (Rae I, p. 135).
A remarkable method of killing wolves has been described by Klutschak (p. 192) and confirmed by the Eskimo of Cumberland Sound. A sharp knife is smeared with deer’s blood and sunk into the snow, the edge only protruding. The wolves lick the knife and cut their tongues so severely as to bleed to death. Another method is to roll a strip of whalebone, about two feet long, in a coil, which is tied up with sinews. At each end a small metal edge is attached to the whalebone. This strip, wrapped in a piece of blubber or meat, is gulped down by the hungry wolf. As it is digested the sinews are dissolved and the elastic strap is opened and tears the stomach of the animal. A very ingenious trap is described by Parry (II, p. 514):
It consists of a small house built of ice, at one end of which a door, made of the same plentiful material, is fitted to slide up and down in a groove; to the upper part of this a line is attached and, passing over the roof, is led down into the trap at the inner end, and there held by slipping an eye in the end of it over a peg of ice left for the purpose. Over the peg, however, is previously placed a loose grummet, to which the bait is fastened, and a false roof placed over all to hide the line. The moment the animal drags at the bait the grummet slips off the peg, bringing with it the line that held up the door, and this falling down closes the trap and secures him.
Foxes are usually caught in traps. An ice house about six feet high is built of hummocks, which are cut down with the point of the spear. It is covered with ice slabs, only a hole in the center being left. Blocks of snow and slabs of ice are piled up around the building so as to permit easy access to the roof. Some blood is sprinkled round the hole to attract the fox and a larger bait is placed upon the floor of the house. The fox jumps down and, as the only exit is in the center of the roof, cannot escape. Another trap has a slab of ice erected in such a manner as to fall and kill the fox when he touches the bait.
A third trap, similar to the one above mentioned, has been described by Lyon, p. 339:
It is like a small lime kiln in form, having a hole near the top, within which the bait is placed, and the foxes (for these animals alone are thus taken) are obliged to advance to it over a piece of whalebone, which, bending beneath their weight, lets them into prison, and then resumes its former position: thus a great number of them are sometimes caught in a night. In the summer they are but rarely taken, and it is then by means of a trap of stones, formed like the ice trap, with a falling door.