The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-03-08
MOORHEAD
Man LEADS
Big WORK
CLAUS J. Murie, Home for
Visit, Will Invade Wilds
of Labrador
ALL SUMNER EXCURSION
Has Already Been Engaged
y in Several Important
v. EXPLORATIONS

CLAUS J. Murie, a Moorhead man
engaged in research work for the
Carnegie Museum Of Pittsburgh, Will
make a trip this summer through the
interior of Labrador from the Gulf OF
st. Lawrence to the Hudson straits.
There will be three white men and
two Indian guides in the party which
will be headed by w. E. Clyde Todd,
curator Of ornithology Of the Carnegie
museum.
Mr.. Murie will have charge of all
specimens secured, besides taking
photographs and making sketches.
Biological specimens to be collected
are skins and eggs Of birds and skins
Of mammals. The natural history re-
search will include the collection OF
botanical specimens and anything else
that Is rare or unusual.
1t will be a hard summers worE
and the start will be made early in
May from the st. Lawrence by way
of a river emptying into 1t from the
north. When the head Of canoe naviga-
ton is reached a portage Will be made
across the height Of land to a river
that flows north through the center or
the Labrador peninsula. The objec-
tive point Is Fort Chino on Hudson
straits, one of the farthest north OF
the Hudson Bay Co.'s posts.
The fort is now the Kaksoak river,
near the Nugava bay.
Fort Chino will be reached in
September in time to connect with the
steamboat that makes the round of
the forts to deliver winter supplies
and bring out the furs that have been
accumulated. If the party fails to
reach the fort in time to connect with
the boat they will be compelled to re-
main there until spring.
Mr.. Murie will have an opportunity
to converse with the Eskimo in their
native cultural as he learned 1t when
he spent months with them during
the winter Of 1914-15. It Is almost
impossible for white man to
pronounce some of the words. but
Murie had to learn 1t as none of the
natives could speak a word of Eng
fish. He found the Eskimo to be a
friendly people and cheerful under any
and all conditions. AS to their per-
sonal habits and their morals he could
not speak with anything approaching
enthusiasm.
In the far north Mr.. Murie expects
to find many rare birds and to secure
specimens as we'll as to observe their
habits during the nesting season. He
hopes to find the nests Of the King and
Northern Elder ducks. Another bird
he hopes to study is the gyrfalcon, a
species Of hawk that nests in the far
north and Of which very little is
known.
When Mr.. Murie made his former
trip to the Hudson bay country he
spent eighteen months in the far
north between the spring of 1914 and
the fall of 1915 and reached 5Sh de-
grees latitude. He was 100 miles
north of the timber line where there
was but very little vegetation. There
he found animal life to be interesting,
but not abundant. Among the inhabi-
tants were polar bears and Eskimos.
Here he found the Old Squaw duck,
several varieties of the Elder duck and
a number of species of looms all of
which nest in that latitude. He was
anxious to visit the nesting grounds
of the blue goose which Is unknown
even to the Eskimo. They told Murie
that these birds nest in Baff1n Land
and that those who went there after
the eggs never returned. From what
he could learn from the Eskimo 1t Is
a vast and treacherous bog.
The arctic tern was another of the
interesting birds he found there and
some of these birds make a round trip
each year between the land furthest
north and land furthest south, dis
lance of $4,000 miles. These birds
nest in colonies on the rocks and it is
little more than a hollow scooped out
OF the ground. The young birds swim,
but he never saw one Of the old ones
resting on the water.
Now comes the jaeger, sea gull
like bird, that practically compels the
terms to hustle living for him. These
hunters harass the terms until he
drops his catch which is retrieved by
the Jaeger. When the terms do not
provide food for the jaeger he goes
ashore and feeds on land berries.
The snow bunting is one Of Murie's
favorites. 1t nests at the limit of the
trees. on the rocks and in the spring
has a beautiful song. This is never
heard except during the spring and
early summer and then by very few
white fhen. Another arctic nesting
bird is Lapland longspur which has
about the same range as the snow
bunting, but nests in low marshy
places. The Greenland red poll is a
bird that never goes further south
than the southern limits of Hudson
bay, even in winter. and nests in
Greenland.
There is a great variety of flowers
and it is no hardship to be In the far
north IN the spring OF the year. Inc
purple or mountain saxifrage is one
of the earliest of the flowers. 1t lasts
longer than other varieties and does
not appear to mind being buried in the
snow.
Game in the far north is scarce and
the mainstay of the Eskimo is the
seal. Ptarmigan, the arctic grouse, is
the only game bird. The arctic hares
are much like our jackrabbits and
further north their coats are white
the year through There are foxes, red,
white, black and silver.
While in the Hudson bay country,
Murie lived with the Eskimo or alone
in a cabin and sometimes was short
on supplies. He ran out of films for
his camera and many of his pictures
were spoiled in developing. He hopes
for better luck on this years trip. He
uses a Graflex camera equipped with
a special lens.
Mr.. Murie returned the first Of this
week from the Olympic mountains
near the north line of Washington
He was, not far from Port Angeles
which Is several hours out from
Seattle. He was attached to the
United States biological survey and
went into the mountains last winter
Part OF his work was the trapping Of
predatory animals
He caught cougars and their lesser
seouafna the bOb cats and Varfo1fs