Eskimo dogs are eager in the pursuit of herds of the musk ox, which always defends itself by forming a circle around the calves. While the oxen are busy keeping a number of ferocious dogs at bay, the hunters approach and let fly their arrows into the herd. Sometimes an infuriated animal breaks from the defensive ring, and at such times the Eskimo is saved by his dogs, who harass the creatures until the hunter is again prepared to shoot. Polar bears are pursued by hunters on light sledges, and when the quarry is exhausted by the chase, the traces of the most reliable dogs are cut, and very soon the bear is standing at bay, striking fiercely at the dogs with his huge forepaws, until the hunter is able to come up and launch a spear or arrow. The best season for bear hunting is March or April, when the bears come a considerable distance inland in pursuit of young seals. In the region of Davis Strait, the Eskimo diligently search for holes where the bear is having his long winter sleep, from which the hunter intends that he shall never be awakened.

Eskimo Dogs’ Attack on a Bear.

Hunters do not consider wolves sufficiently valuable to repay the trouble of pursuit, and these creatures are ignored unless they prove dangerous to the Eskimo encampments. Traps for wolves consist of a hole ten feet deep, very small at the bottom, but gradually widening towards the circular top, which is surrounded by a snow wall. A thin sheet of ice covers the wide top, in the centre of which some strongly smelling meat is placed. In order to get the bait, the wolf must leap the snow wall, with the result that he crashes through the thin covering of ice, and is soon trapped at the narrow base of the pit. A very cruel method of killing wolves consists of rolling a very sharp piece of whalebone inside a piece of meat, which is eagerly gulped down by a hungry animal. The meat digests and dissolves, and before long the wolf suffers very great pain, for the whalebone coil unwinds and the sharpened ends penetrate the walls of the stomach and intestines.

Small game, such as foxes, hares, ermines, and lemmings, are caught in snares, while for birds the following clever contrivance is frequently employed. “It consists of seven or eight sinew cords, nearly three feet long and tied together at one end, while to the opposite ends weights of ivory or stone are attached. Before being launched at the bird, the sling is whirled round the head, so that when it leaves the hand a rotatory movement is imparted to it, and all the weights fly apart, the striking diameter of the weapon covering five or six feet. The bird is thus brought to the ground, whether it is struck by the weights or entangled in the strings.”

A favourite method of catching gulls depends entirely on the quickness of the hunter, who has concealed himself in a small snow house, one block of the roof of which is made from a thin, transparent piece of ice to support the bait. When a bird settles on this thin ice, the trapper quickly pushes his hand through, seizes the creature, and drags it into the hut. By far the greater number of birds are caught in the moulting season, partridges by hand, and waterfowl after pursuit with the kayak. Swimming birds dive as soon as the boat comes near them; immediately they are pursued, and time after time are driven down whenever they attempt to breathe at the surface; eventually they are drowned, and the bodies float on the water.

Fish, among which the salmon is very plentiful, are harpooned, taken by ivory fishing hooks, or chipped out of blocks of ice in which they have become deposited at the freezing of a small lake, which may have been converted into a solid mass of ice. The scraping, chewing, and drying of skins is one of the chief employments of women, and so careful are they, that no part of the carcase is wasted, and even the intestines of a seal are made to furnish transparent waterproofs, which are, of course, very light and convenient to carry. Driftwood from the seashore is used in making bows and sledges, while the antlers of the reindeer help to form smooth runners, and the sinews give elasticity to wooden bows. Knives, scrapers, hooks, utensils, prongs of harpoons, and arrowheads, all depend for their manufacture on supplies of ivory and bone, in the working of which the Eskimo is most ingenious. Strange to say, the caves of very ancient Europe, when excavated, have sometimes yielded specimens of engraved ivory very closely resembling the products of the Eskimo. From the caves La Madeleine and Bruniquel are derived some excellent specimens of engraving on bone, an art which flourished in some parts of Southern Europe towards the end of the old Stone Age. The question of the origin and migrations of the Eskimo, together with speculations concerning their connection with the bone workers of ancient Europe, are very interesting, but perhaps too long and difficult for a small reading-book.

In addition to the kayak already described, women use a large open boat shaped like a trough and capable of holding about twenty people. With this “umiak” single-bladed paddles are employed, and a low lug-sail made of strips of walrus-intestine is sometimes hoisted. For steering, a paddle is used, and a rudder is to be found only when the Eskimo have copied the steering device from European whalers.