Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1883-02-24
How The Esquimaux yHuut
Reindeer.

Lieut.. FREQ SchWatka IL con-
tributing 10 the New York Forest
and Stream a series Of paper. de-
scriptive OF his hunting adyentur
Is while on his Arctic Franklin
Search Expedition. He gives this
account of the E|quimaux mode
OF hunting reindeer:
Another plan much followed by
those natives throug hout the Arc
tic not provided with firearms is
TO establish line of stone mouu-
ments at about fifty to hund. ed
yards Interval along the crest of
some prominent ridge, often two
ana three miles in length, which
runs oblique.y toward and termi-
mates In the waters edge Of some
large lake or wide river. A sharp
lookout Is kept from some avaiia-
bic point, and if herd Of reindeer
Is found feeding or walking with
In the acute angle formed by the
shore line and ridge bristling with
stone charms, the natives engaged
In the chase deploy into a skirm-
ish line sufficiently long to close
the mouth of this angle and walk
slowly toward the reindeer, their
bows and arrows or spears and
their kiakS eight skin canoes) be-
ing carried along or concealed in
some convenient place near the
waters edge. The nerd seeing the
slow approach OF their enemies,
trot leisurely away until they
come within sight of the rock
monuments, which have been
made to Initiate the human form
as far as possible, when, believing
themselves to be surrounded on
the land side, they take to the
water as the only means of escape
left them. No sooner is the herd
fairly in, than the agile natives are
in hot pursuit, with their kidkS
flying through the water, and rap.
idly overtaking the bewiidered
animals, they dispatch them with
arrows and spears, and haul their
carcasses on shore to be butchered.
This sport is not without its
dangers, as Oftimes wounded an
imal or belligerent buck seeing
flight impossible, with swinging
horns and plunging hoofs, turns 80
swiftly on his purSuer that he sue
ceeds in tearing the fragile kidk to
pieces, and the wrecked esqui-
maux, unable to swim, browns /
he is not promptly rescued by
some near neighbor, or manages
to float on the wreck of his boat
until help arrives. 1t IL a singu-
lar fact that herd Of reindeer, SO
the natives say, will repeatedly
Craze right through this line of
cairns without any further notice
than few suspicious glances at
them as they pass by, but the
minute moving figures force them
against these stationary ones their
suspicion is raised to pitch high
enough to make them prefer the
water rather than to trust them.
Yet this is not very hard to COM
pr ehend if one knows the almost
half amphibiouS nature of the Arc
! tic deer. | have seen them when
taking upa line Of march, wade
and swim right through 1t deep
lake that interposed itself la their
direct course rather than to go
around t,aIthough this would not
have exacted a marked detOur,
which fact, | imagined, must have
been as patent to the deer AS il was
to myself. And the Esquimaux
! tell me OF even holder deeds.
When persued and "cOrnered' on
some of the long narrow tongues
of land projecting into Hudson's
Bay, they have known the deer to
take to the sea and swim directly
Outward, until they are lost to vi
sion, and whether they were
thereby drowned or not they could
! not tell