Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/98

72 the 'Polar Star,' was lost, and the 'Alert' returned from Cumberland Gulf. The total produce of these eight vessels was 28 Whales, 609 Walruses, 16 Narwhals, 3036 Seals, 128 Bears, and 68 Musk Oxen; the oil yielded was 385 tons, and the bone 350 cwt.—a very mixed cargo; but, except for the Hudson Bay section of the fleet, apparently a fairly successful voyage commercially. There has been no very recent sale of whalebone, but I am informed that the last sale effected produced £1400 per ton; more is being asked for it now. Whale oil is producing from £18 to £19, and Seal oil from £18 to £21 per ton. Walrus hides, if heavy, bring as high as ₤40 each. They are used for polishing wheels for bicycle work, and therefore should be very thick; light hides are of little use, and not in request, therefore of little value. The total value of the produce of the season, estimating the bone at the last selling price, and allowing for undersize, would probably be about £38,000.

As part of the produce of the late voyage, sixty-eight Musk Oxen will be noticed; ten of these were from East Greenland, the remainder from the mainland of Arctic America in the form of skins procured from the natives. This is sad reading, for not only does it threaten the extinction of this most interesting animal, but also of one of the food supplies of the Indians and Esquimaux of this sterile land, who maintain at the best a very precarious existence on the flesh of the Reindeer, the Walrus, and the Musk Ox; should these supplies fail the natives will undoubtedly perish, a fate which has already to a great extent befallen their brethren to the west of Bering's Strait. Before the natives became possessed of firearms they could by their primitive methods obtain sufficient food for their wants, and skins for their tents and winter clothing, without undue sacrifice of life; but their capacity for destruction was limited. Since however they have been supplied with modern weapons they still destroy life to the utmost of their ability, without thought for the future, and, forgetful of their own wants, exchange the skins with white traders to an extent only limited by their capacity for slaughter,