on the Kite, and in a letter dated July 29 which Lieu- 

 tenant Peary sent on the ship to Putnam, he mentioned 

 erroneously that most of the objects were obtained at a 

 settlement called Ittiblu approximately 23 km. further 

 up Whale Sound from Nettik. 



After leaving Peary and his small party on the 

 shores of McCormick Bay, the Kite stopped at an Eskimo 

 settlement on Cape York. Here representatives of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences made a fairly sizeable 

 collection of ethnographic material. The Cape York 

 Eskimos appeared to have had more contact with Euro- 

 peans or with Eskimos to the south than the residents of 

 Nettik, as there was more evidence of the use of iron and 

 wood. 



Meanwhile, in mid-August Peary's explorations in 

 the vicinity of the permanent camp got under way with a 

 boat trip to the islands in the vicinity of McCormick 

 Bay. Dr. Cook traded for ethnographic objects at a small 

 village of 13 inhabitants called Kiatak on Northumber- 

 land Island. He noted that each man in this settlement 

 possessed a kayak, a harpoon, a lance, and a bird net. 

 Two possessed bows and arrows, a number of rolls of 

 sealskin line, and some narwhal sinew. 



Beginning in early November, a number of Eskimo 

 families began to arrive at Red Cliff House. By Novem- 

 ber 7 there were 17 men, women, and children living 

 around the camp and other families arrived and departed 



Lieutenant Peary with broken leg 



throughout the winter. Dr. Cook made anthropometric- 

 al measurements of 75 individuals during the winter and 

 Peary himself obtained a complete series of photographs 

 of the same persons. Dr. Cook appears to have taken the 

 census, enumerating a total of 233 Polar Eskimos. 

 Whether or not any of this non-artifactual material was 

 turned over to Putnam along with the ethnographic ob- 

 jects cannot be determined. The photographs and cen- 

 sus data were published in Peary's book dealing with the 

 expedition. 



Drawing of Red Cliff House — McCormick Bay 



21 



