There Has Been So Much Talk About Destruction By Whalers That I
Was Careful To Gather All Available Information.
Several travellers
who had visited Hershell Island told me that four is the usual
number of whalers that winter in the north-east of Point Barrow.
Sometimes, but rarely, the number is increased to eight or ten,
never more.
They buy what Caribou they can from Eskimo, sometimes
aggregating 300 or 400 carcasses in a winter, and would use more
if they could get them, but they cannot, as the Caribou herds are
then far south. This, E. Sprake Jones, William Hay, and others,
are sure represents fairly the annual destruction by whalers on
the north coast. Only one or two vessels of this traffic go into
Hudson's Bay, and these with those of Hershell are all that touch
Caribou country, so that the total destruction by whalers must be
under 1,000 head per annum.
The Eskimo kill for their own use. Franz Boas ("Handbook of American
Indians") gives the number of Eskimo in the central region at
1,100. Of these not more than 300 are hunters. If we allow their
destruction to equal that of the 600 Indians, it is liberal, giving
a total of 40,000 Caribou killed by native hunters. As the whites
rarely enter the region, this is practically all the destruction
by man. The annual increase of 30,000,000 Caribou must be several
millions and would so far overbalance the hunter toll that the
latter cannot make any permanent difference.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 212 of 252
Words from 56265 to 56521
of 67135
