My Life with the Eskimo (New Edition)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1922. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... seals were numerous, but the region of greatest abundance seemed to be in Dolphin and Union Straits. We saw numbers here in summer, and natives from this section say that they sometimes see ten at a single hole on the ice, basking in the sun in the warm spring days. Farther east in Coronation Gulf the Bearded Seals are less common. The Eskimo east as far as Cape Bathurst consider the skin of the Bearded Seal as almost indispensable for boot-soles and umiakcovers and for cutting into heavy rawhide rope. The skins of six or seven Ugyuk will cover an umiak (skin canoe) thirty feet or more in length. The animal may weigh from five to eight hundred pounds. Order Insecttvora -- Insectivores Sorex personatus I. Geoffroy St. Hilaire. Common Eastern Shrew. Shrews, probably of this species, are reported commonly at many posts along the Mackenzie. Mr. Henry Frazer, a trader at Fort Norman, said that Shrews were very abundant in his storehouse and did considerable damage, gnawing into any animal substances, such as bacon, skins, furs, etc. Although I kept a number of traps set I could not catch any specimens along the river, although later I took specimens in the Mackenzie delta which appear to be personatus. Sorex tundrensis^ Merriam. Tundra Shrew. Ug-ru'nak (Alaskan Eskimo). Ug'yu-nak (Mackenzie Eskimo). This species is apparently generally distributed all along the Arctic coast, but is not common anywhere. Specimens were taken in the Endicott Mountains, Alaska, Mackenzie delta, Cape Bathurst, and Horton River, south of Langton Bay. Order Chiroptera -- The Bats Myotis lucifugus (Le Conte). Little Brown Bat. Among a few small mammal skins, collected at Hay River at west end of Great Slave Lake in spring of 1908, Mr. Harry W. Jones had one Little Brown Bat. We saw no Bats a...