Volume 4, 1951 - The Arctic Circle - Home

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111 it be possible to determine what number of animaIs may e killed annually by hunters, without endangering the main tock. Barren ground caribou were once plentiful in Ungava d Labrador but during the last fifty years they have almost ompletely vanished and only in recent years have there been eports of slight increases in the Fort Chimo area (Wright, 944; ~anning, 1948); in Baffin Island caribou have been creasing during the last few decades at such an alarming te that total protection has lately been considered cessary. Labrador-Ungava and Baffin Island physiographically e very different from the vast continental area west of dson Bay but in many respects are comparable with the iceee parts of Greenland. Several causes have been advanced to explain the rapid sappearance of the barren land caribou in Labrador-Ungava t thus far no very satisfactory explanation has been given. Baffin Island, however, it is thought that excessive nting is the primary cause of depletion (Wright, 1944). actically no statistical information is available for either ea and it is not possible, therefore, even to estimate past present populations of the numbers killed by hunting. ln e~nland, on the other hand, caribou have been rather closely served for more than two hundred years by Danish scientists d administrators, and it may be of interest to note briefly at has happened there. ln comparing the two areas it should noted that in Greenland the caribou is more vulnerable to ting because the ice-free parts of Greenland are deeply dented by fjords which in many parts extend to the very e of the great inland ice which covers aIl the interior that island. These fjords not only make the areas inbited by caribou accessible to Eskimo hunters summer and nter, but they also impede north and south migration of the ibou. Furthermore, there are places along the Greenland sts where huge glaciers, in some cases more than 50 miles width, form impassable barriers to coast-wise migration. The Greenland caribou, on the other hand, does not ffer from the predation of warble or nostril flies because ose pests apparently never reached Greenland. On the west st, too, there are no wolves. Another factor which unbtedly has been of inestimable conservational value is t even to this day aIl hunting in Greenland is done with le-shot rifles. No loaded shells are sold to Greenlanders can buy only black powder for reloading. V/hile the use .single-shot, black powder rifles and shotguns may at first earance seem anachronistic, the practice nevertheless is
The primitive weapons of stone age man were adequate for his needs and, \vhen game was available, he was able to secure sufficient food and clothing. Because hunting was laborious and the making of arrowheads and spear points difficult and time-consuming, more game was rarely killed than was needed for the hunter and his family. Although in the Arctic the balance between natural increases and predation was often a delicate one, the vicissitudes to which hunting tribes have always been prone were, perhaps, more frequently caused by changes in the migration routes of game animaIs than by excessive predation. The introduction of firearms progressively changed this picture and, as regards some large land animaIs, there has been a rapid, and in some parts catastrophic, decrease in numbers. Again, depending on differences in the hysiography of the area, the impact of changed hunting methods as affected different game animaIs in different ways. ln the ften precarious existence of Eskimo and Indians, caribou have lways been important. To some tribes caribou has aotually een the "staff of life" and its disappearance has often meant tarvation and death. Estimates of animal populations are frequently subject o errors of judgment and sorne early estimates of the numbers f barren ground caribou should be accepted with reservation. ie do know, however, from the accounts of early travellers hat caribou were once plentiful from Bering Strait to the coast of Labrador. We know, also, that at present caribou re scarce or have altogether disappeared in muny areas where hey were plentiful only a few decades ago. hlthough concern ver this has long been felt in responsible quarters, no anacea has ever been proposed. ln Alaska, and later in anada, attempts have been made to introduce domesticated eindeer to ease the drain on the wild caribou population or to provide a substitute in places where caribou had already disappeared. Thus far these experiments have met with only artial or indifferent success, because reindeer nomadism 18 incompatible l'vithpresent trends of cultural development and because the North American Arctic is too thinly populated to provide a ready market for reindeer products. One of the most constructive steps taken in Canada toward the preservation of the remaining caribou herds has been the "caribou survey" which for sorneyears has been conducted by'mammalogists of the Canadian vHldlife Service (Banfield, 1950). Thus far this survey has been concerned largely with the continental parts of Keewatin and Mackenzie where very large herds still existe It is hoped that, in addition to fairly reliable estimates of the present caribou population, the survey "viII determine the relation between natural annual increases .and predation, for only when this has been done
Page 2 and 3:
Annual General Meeting of the Arcti
Page 4 and 5:
Hydrographic survey operations of t
Page 6 and 7:
President: Vice-President: Secretar
Page 8 and 9: Il... 1 • : r -.f' 1ṙ ·'·1 "'
Page 10 and 11: had the additional responsibilities
Page 12 and 13: cement was turned on its side. The
Page 14 and 15: }:sanwhile at Fort Churchill, Exerc
Page 16 and 17: were seen by the party in the hill
Page 18 and 19: Cape Hopes hdvance, Que. Cole, F.J.
Page 20 and 21: Payne Bay. Q,ue. Ford, Mr. & 1àrs.
Page 22 and 23: Published by The Arctic Circle Otta
Page 24 and 25: Through the courtesy of the R.C.A~F
Page 26 and 27: abundant vegetation for the ôlimat
Page 28 and 29: Navy is identical except for the ad
Page 30 and 31: Onoe olear of this new stra1t the v
Page 32 and 33: inadvertently found our way into a
Page 34 and 35: Steaming fa~thér ta the southeast,
Page 36 and 37: such as the testing and evaluation
Page 38 and 39: ~1.40 per lb. or ~c~!on of a lb. Al
Page 40 and 41: The Club meets in Ottawa once a mon
Page 42 and 43: up the Minago River to Hill Lake, n
Page 44 and 45: where it was again possible to coll
Page 46 and 47: A comprehensive account of the faun
Page 48 and 49: face of exposed banks than into lev
Page 50 and 51: the James Bay area, 680 X-rays were
Page 52 and 53: As a protective measure vaccine aga
Page 54 and 55: The Varying Lemming captive in Otta
Page 56 and 57: Published by The !rotio Cirole Otta
Page 60 and 61: will it be possible to determine wh
Page 62 and 63: 820's approximately 37,000 were tak
Page 64: ink, H. (1857): be skrevet '• 'Gr
Page 67 and 68: ln conclusion l wish to thank Franz
Page 69 and 70: Exercise Firestep Exercise Firestep
Page 71 and 72: Published by The Aretie Cirele otta
Page 73 and 74: Two lines of soundings were taken a
Page 75 and 76: on September l, and struck an uncha
Page 77 and 78: Total mileage of Algerine on passag
Page 79 and 80: The C.D. Howe arrived off Resolutio
Page 81 and 82: Central Arctic, and the Ungava sect
Page 83 and 84: ln addition to the reorganization i
Page 85 and 86: Published by The Arctic Circle Otta
Page 87 and 88: ln 1920 the discovery of oil in com
Page 89 and 90: obligation towards their constituen
Page 91 and 92: NANORT.iJ.,IK JUI·IJ1NEHAAD NARSSA
Page 93 and 94: R.C.M.P. detachment at Old Crow. Th
Page 95 and 96: forme The terrain was completely sn
Page 97 and 98: it. It is completely round except f
Page 99 and 100: The Committee would like to express
Page 101 and 102: C.D. Howe, and murder trial, 72 Cam
Page 103 and 104: Hagg, E.L., and help at Circle meet
Page 105 and 106: Peacock, Rev. F.W., and reports of
Page 107: v~-aller,J., and Baff in Id. exped.
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Volume 4, 1951 - The Arctic Circle - Home

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