Aug. 1858. TRAVELS OF THE ESQUIMAUX. 141 



they could not have stripped off with any tools previously in 

 their possession. 



That the various tribes, or rather groups of families, occa- 

 sionally visit each other, sometimes for change of hunting- 

 grounds, but more frequently for barter, is well known. 

 Captain Parker told me that a native whom he had met one 

 summer at Durbin Island, came on board his ship at Pond's 

 Bay the following year. The distance between the two 

 places, as travelled by this man in a single winter, is scarcely 

 short of 500 miles ; and the information given us of Rae's 

 wintering at Repulse Bay, information which must have 

 travelled here in two winters, shows that these natives com- 

 municate at still greater distances. 



Did other wrecks exist nearer at hand, our Pond's Bay 

 friends would be much better supplied with wood. If the 

 Esquimaux knew of any within 300, 400, or even 500 miles, 

 the Pond's Bay natives would at least have heard of them, 

 and could have had no reason for concealing it from us. 



