Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/26

which does not live on Southampton Island and only recently has appeared for the first time in Baffin Land, is feared for the ease with which it destroys caches. Foxes are plentiful everywhere, principally the Arctic fox. Hares are met with everywhere, but not in large numbers; marmots (Arctomys Parryi) and the lemming are common (the former only on the mainland, however), but are not of practical importance.

Bears are numerous on Southampton Island, at which they arrive on the masses of drift ice from Fox Basin, and in Lancaster Sound and Prince Regents Inlet; in fact they may be met with anywhere now and then.

Of aquatic mammals the two kinds of seal, the small seal (Phoca foetida) and the bearded seal (P. barbata) are common everywhere; in July 1922 from Naujan Hill, Repulse Bay, I was able to count 210 small seals and six bearded seals on the ice. Walruses are particularly numerous in the Iglulik area: Iglulik, Pingerqalik, Ugle, Amitsoq, and also occur in many other places, as in Frozen Strait and Roes Welcome; in former days Aivilik, in Repulse Bay, was the principal hunting ground; now it is mostly Beach Point, Duke of York Bay and the south coast of Southampton Island, as well as Depot Island. In northern Baffin Land they are not so common. On the other hand the fjords there — Ponds Inlet, Navy Board Inlet and Admiralty Inlet — are particularly rich in narwhals. White whales are found in several places: Roes Welcome, Lyon Inlet, Duke of York Bay, although rarely in large numbers. The once so great abundance of bowhead whales has long been a thing of the past; the last whale left Hudson Bay in 1912. Roes Welcome, Repulse Bay, Lyon Inlet and Ponds Inlet were formerly extremely rich in whales and were important whaling centres. Now the Eskimos only occasionally catch a whale. In 1922 one was caught in Repulse Bay and the same year one at Ponds Inlet; at both places this was the first whale taken for many years.

Birds are not particularly abundant. Of land birds ravens and owls are seen all the year round; ptarmigan are met with everywhere, but rarely in large numbers. Here and there the gull is to be found in great colonies; in Cockburn Land in many places there are guillemot cliffs. Eider ducks, loons and various kinds of ducks are met with everywhere, though not very abundantly. Southampton Island is famous for its swans. All in all, however, birds play only a very small part in the life of the Eskimos.

Of much more importance are the fish, and of these practically only the trout, which are to be found in almost all lakes and rivers of any size, often in great numbers; there are various species, some