﻿RESPECT FOR TERRITORIAL RIGHTS. 351 



the state of the ice, and should it fail, great misery- 

 results ; the spring being, in fact, the time of the 

 year in which the Central Eskimos incur the greatest 

 risk of famine. When the thaw lays the ground 

 in the valleys bare, rein-deer and wild-fowl return 

 to the sea-coast, and plenty follows in their train. 



It will be evident, from the account of the yearly 

 round of the lives of these people, that their move- 

 ments are restricted to narrow limits, as compared 

 with the 'Tinne, who pursue the chase over tracts 

 of country hundreds of miles in diameter, as ne- 

 cessity, fear, or caprice, drives them. A strict 

 right to hunting-grounds does not seem to be 

 maintained by the several members of the widely 

 spread 'Tinne nation, so as to hinder several 

 tribes from resorting to the same districts in pur- 

 suit of deer, and meeting each other in amity, 

 unless an actual feud exists. Thus our presence at 

 Fort Confidence was sufficient to determine various 

 bands of Hare Indians, Dog-ribs and Martin-lake 

 Indians, to resort to the north-eastern arm of Great 

 Bear Lake ; and but for a deadly feud with the Dog- 

 ribs, which twenty years ago greatly reduced the 

 numbers of our old friends, the Copper Indians, 

 we should have had their company also. The 

 Eskimos, on the contrary, have a strong respect 

 for their territorial rights, and maintain them with 

 firmness. We learned at Cape Bathurst, that each 



