File:The Canadian field-naturalist (1930) (20519533985).jpg

Title: The Canadian field-naturalist
Identifier: canadianfieldnat1930otta (find matches)
Year: 1930 (1930s)
Authors: Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club
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Publisher: Ottawa, Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club
Contributing Library: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library

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The Canadian Pield-Naturalist (VoL.-XLIV
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Typical nesting area of the Blue Goose, Eshuleeungnil Plain, Bowman Bay, Foxe Basin. Lat. 65° 30' N. July Uh, 1929. two years in the country, the species remained almost as great a mystery as before. Mindful of the things seen and the inference drawn on the Koukdjuak plains in the fall of 1925, it was decided in the spring of 1926 to journey from Pangnirtung, in Cumberland Sound to Cape Dorset at the southwestern extremity of Baffin island—a distance of about five hundred miles by dog team. What would be learned there? Study of the map suggested Cape Dorset as a strategic point at which to witness the migration of the Blue Goose from the south, to the western fastness of Baffin island, if they went there as surmised. Moreover, there was the distinct advantage of coming into contact with additional tribes of Eskimos, who possibly possessed some definite knowledge of the summer home of the Blue Goose. With each change of location and every venture recurred the old thought—is this to establish a turning point in the long-protracted search? Arrival at Cape Dorset, by sledge, on May 21, 1926, was sufficiently early to permit the observa- tion of any goose migration which might occur there. This hypothesis of migration proved to be well founded, for early in June large numbers of Blue Geese were seen passing over Cape Dorset in company with the Lesser Snow Goose. These were flying high in a northeasterly direction as though bound for some relatively distant locality. Prom the Eskimo it was learned later that con- siderable numbers also migrated northward over Poxe Land via Andrew Gordon bay and Chorkbak inlet. These facts seemed to indicate, therefore, that the Blue Goose nested at some point on western Baffin island. This, at least, was a definite step forward. In late July of the same summer I collected two Blue Geese, associating with several Lesser Snow Geese, nine miles northwest of Cape Dorset. This seemed to indicate, further, a comparative proximity to the actual nesting area. In any event it furnished tangible evidence of a kind and constituted the first specimens of the Blue Goose taken in the moult on Baffin island. Immediately following this occurrence I had the good fortune at Cape Dorset to meet two Gordon Bay Eskimos who, some years before, had hunted caribou over the great tundras of northern Foxe Land and along the west coast of Baffin island to within about one degree of the Arctic Circle. These men possessed a good

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