marine fauna than the shore of Hudson Bay. This is presumably especially true of the lower animals, and the trout is the only saltwater fish that is of any importance to the Eskimos on Barren Grounds, whereas the West Greenlanders have a rich selection of fish at their disposal. Cod and halibut have been sought for in vain in Hudson Bay.[1] To a smaller extent something similar is, perhaps, the case with the birds, but still there are many kinds of birds at the Image missingFig. 4.Typical Barren Grounds scenery in early summer. Snow is still lying at the north foot of the hills. Bay in summer. On the other hand the number of aquatic mammals is almost the same.[2]
The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) comes on the drift ice from the north along the coast. It lands in great numbers on Southampton Island and is not rare in Roe's Welcome; but on the southwest coast of the Bay it hardly ever lands, so that the Eskimos there get fewer bears than the Chipewyan at Churchill. Whales, of which the white whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is very numerous in places, are not hunted at all by the Caribou Eskimos and, when some of them visit the coast every year, it is only for the purpose of hunting the walrus (Trichechus rosmarus), the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) and the fjord seal (Phoca foetida). These animals are common almost everywhere. The spotted seal (Ph. vitulina) is found in some places,
- ↑ Wakeham 1898; 76.
- ↑ Halichoerus grypus is probably not found at all on the western shore of Hudson Bay.
