Hunters do not consider wolves sufficiently valuable to repay the trouble of pursuit, and these creatures are ignored unless they prove dangerous to the Eskimo encampments. Traps for wolves consist of a hole ten feet deep, very small at the bottom, but gradually widening towards the circular top, which is surrounded by a snow wall. A thin sheet of ice covers the wide top, in the centre of which some strongly smelling meat is placed. In order to get the bait, the wolf must leap the snow wall, with the result that he crashes through the thin covering of ice, and is soon trapped at the narrow base of the pit. A very cruel method of killing wolves consists of rolling a very sharp piece of whalebone inside a piece of meat, which is eagerly gulped down by a hungry animal. The meat digests and dissolves, and before long the wolf suffers very great pain, for the whalebone coil unwinds and the sharpened ends penetrate the walls of the stomach and intestines. Small game, such as foxes, hares, ermines, and lemmings, are caught in snares, while for birds the following clever contrivance is frequently employed. “It consists of seven or eight sinew cords, nearly three feet long and tied together at one end, while to the opposite ends weights of ivory or stone are attached. Before being launched at the bird, the sling is whirled round the head, so that when it leaves the hand a rotatory movement is imparted to it, and all the weights fly apart, the striking diameter of the weapon covering five or six feet. The bird is thus brought to the ground, whether it is struck by the weights or entangled in the strings.” A favourite method of catching gulls depends entirely on the quickness of the hunter, who has concealed himself in a small snow house, one block of the roof of which is made from a thin, transparent piece of ice to support the bait. When a bird settles on this thin ice, the trapper quickly pushes his hand through, seizes the creature, and drags it into the hut. By far the greater number of birds are caught in the moulting season, partridges by hand, and waterfowl after pursuit with the kayak. Swimming birds dive as soon as the boat comes near them; immediately they are pursued, and time after time are driven down whenever they attempt to breathe at the surface; eventually they are drowned, and the bodies float on the water.