The Land
Beaufort Region
(Part II)
by
David Morrison
Curator of N.W.T. Archaeology
(District of Mackenzie)
Canadian Museum of Civilization

Vegetation

By Arctic standards, vegetation cover is unusually dense and complete, and bare ground is largely restricted to beaches. Low, moist areas, especially near the tree line, can support dense, nearly impassable stands of shoulder-high willow, while dry hilltops may support only a few scattered shrubs. Open, grassy areas usually mark the location of former houses and villages. Frost-patterned ground is common in many areas, as are the characteristic pingos. These large "frost boils" take the form of earthen hills several dozen to several hundred metres high, with frozen, icy centres and cratered tops, like frozen volcanoes. They are more common in the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula area (where there are several thousand) than anywhere else on earth.

Animal Resources

The Western Arctic is also very well endowed with animal resources. Particularly important are beluga whales, a small circumpolar white whale about 4 metres in length. In summer, they are very abundant in the esutaries of the Mackenzie River mouth, where they are much hunted. There area also much larger bowhead whales, baleen whales up to 18 metres in length. The mainstay of Arctic commercial whaling, bowheads were nearly exterminated in the Western Arctic before the First World War, but are making a cautious comeback today.

Seals are found everywhere in the Arctic sea. The two main species in the Western Arctic are ringed seals, the common and typical arctic seal, and the much larger bearded seal. Unlike the larger sea mammals both species can easily deal with even complete ice cover by maintaining breathing holes through the ice. Both are found in the area year round.

On land, fish are a staple food resource, particularly cisco, whitefish, and burbot. Most are summer spawners, and can be taken in huge numbers with nets.

The Western Arctic is served by two distinct caribou herds, with the Porcupine herd living west of the River, and the Bluenose herd to the east. Both are migratory, calving on the coastal tundra in early June, and wintering in the northern forests. Perhaps due to overhunting during the whaling era, both caribou populations collapsed in the early 20th century, but are in strong recovery today. The best caribou hunting is in the Richardson Mountains, or to the east around the Anderson River. With fish and sea mammals, caribou were the basis of traditional subsistence in the Western Arctic.

There are other, larger animals. Polar bears are the largest terrestrial carnivores on earth, and can sometimes be found in coastal regions, particularly around the outer headlands such as Cape Bathurst. Occasionally they wander inland as far as Fort MacPherson or Arctic Red River. More common are grizzly bears, which are relatively abundant in the Richardson Mountains, or east of the River around the Horton and Anderson Rivers. Moose occasionally wander north of treeline in summer, browsing on rich willow thickets. And muskox can be found in a few areas. By 1900 they were extinct in Alaska and all but eliminated west of Coronation Gulf, but like many other Arctic animals they are making a good comeback in the 20th century. Muskox can now be seen around the Horton River, and also on the Yukon Arctic coast, where an introduced Alaskan population is expanding. They were probably never common in the Mackenzie valley itself.