Volume 8, 1955 - The Arctic Circle - Home

VGL. VIll NC. I THI;; rl.RCTIC cm.CULAR 5The seal was the most important food animal of both peoples, representedby 68 and 64 per cent of the bones, respectively, at the Dorset andSadlermiut sites. Next came the walrus, D.2 per cent at th", Dorsetand 5.2 per cent at the Sadlermiut site. Bearded saal bones occurredin about the same proportion - 10 per cent and 7.1 per cent. F-olarbear bones were scarce, 0.1 per cent at the Dorset site and 1.3 percent at the Sadlermiut site. Cne somewhat surprising result of thebone count was evidence that the Dorset feo!,le made little use ofcaribou - one hall of one per cent in contrast to 11. 5 per cent ofcaribou bones at the Sadlermiut site. Fox bo~.es were more numerousat the Dorset site, 1}. 6 Fer cent as compared with 2.6 per cent, butdog bones were completely lacking. The absence of dog bones isevidence that t:,z Dol'S ",t people had no dog Gleda and thzrefore noeffective means of winter travel. This was probably the reason theygot so few caribou, for lacking the mobility of the '. ater Sadlermiut,who !,ossessed the dog sled, they would have been unable to makelong trips to the east side of the island where the caribou mostlylived.In addition to archaeological material, we collected £s:dmoskeletons, polar bear, seal, dog, woll, fox, and caribou skulls,lemmings, insects, freshwater invertebrates, plants, and ectoparasitesfrom lemmings and birds.On July 13 an :':::skimo :h;terhead boat came from Coral Harbourto take us Over to Coats Island. VIG excavated two of four houses ata small Sadlermiut site On the north coast directly opposite BencasIsland and examined two other house ruins near the northeastern endof Bencas. Late in August we returned to Coral Harbour by l'-eterheadand were flown to Montreal, via Churchill, by the R.C •.'10.."-. ;{;merson,Taylor. Jim Wright, and I plan to return to Southampton Island inJune 1955 for another season of work at Native Foint.Northern Ellesmere Ice Shell expedition, 195"1.By R. L, ChristieThe expedition to the ice shelf of northern Ellesmere Islandin 1954 was organized to carry out studies in glaciology, glacialgeology, and geology on the coast between Cape aldrich, the northernmostpoint of ;;;llesmere island, and .Lands LClkk, the northwestextremity of that island.1. Fublished by permission of the Deputy Minister, DeF4rtment ofMines and Technical Surveys, Ottawa, Canada.