APPENDIX 743 



later in the winter, and pieced out by a sparing use of coal. East 

 of Cape Bexley there is very little large driftwood on the beaches. 



About thirty seals had been killed at Bernard Harbor in the autumn, 

 but only four caribou. The Eskimos on the Victoria Island side 

 north and east of Bernard Harbor killed large numbers of the caribou 

 in the autumn, and we were able to purchase all the frozen caribou 

 meat we needed as soon as they could haul it across, and later, after 

 the Eskimos' winter sealing by spearing through the ice had com- 

 menced, we were able to buy all the fresh seal meat we needed for 

 dog-food or table use. 



During February and March, 1915, Castel and myself made a to- 

 boggan trip from Bernard Harbor across the west end of Coronation 

 Gulf, up the Coppermine River, to Dismal Lake, and across to the 

 Dease River, northeast of Great Bear Lake. We were much delayed by 

 soft snow amongst rough, jagged ice on the Coppermine, and our dogs 

 were too exhausted to be able to proceed very far through the deep, soft 

 snow on Dease River, so we had to turn back to the coast without 

 making connections with any white man or Indians on Great Bear 

 Lake to take out our winter's mail. We reached Bernard Harbor 

 again April 1, and a little later the mail was sent out along the coast 

 to the Alaska at Baillie Island.* 



On the Coppermine River, around Dismal Lake, on the Horton 

 River (south of Franklin Bay), and to a less extent farther west, we 

 have often noted the large proportion of dead spruce trees near the 

 northern limit of timber. In some areas about 90 per cent, of the trees 

 are dead, in districts which show little o.r no evidence of forest fires. 

 Johansen and Jenness accompanied our inland trip as far as the edge 

 of the timber-line on the Coppermine, near the Sandstone Rapid. 

 Johansen made a careful study of forest conditions here and found 

 that practically all the dead trees which were examined had apparently 

 been killed by bark-beetles, three species of them being found. 



The program for the spring's work had been planned before going 

 inland. Cox, with an assistant, started in March and made a ca»reful 

 survey of the coast along the south side of Dolphin and Union Strait 

 from Chantry Island east to Cape Krusenstern and as far south as 

 Lockyer Point. Starting again in April, he carried the survey around 

 the west end of Coronation Gulf as far as the mouth of Rae River. 

 Rae River was ascended and carefully surveyed for about 70 miles, 

 until it forked into two small creeks. Large willows were found at 

 rather frequent intervals on Rae River after getting some way from 



* Cf. the account of a journey made in 1911 through the same country in 

 "My Life With the Eskimo," pp. 237 ff. It was made easily and rapidly then 

 because the sledges were light and we lived by hunting. Dr. Anderson's 

 difficulty in 1915 was that his sledges were heavily loaded with food. They 

 sank into the snow in consequence, progress was retarded and the dogs 

 and men worn out by heavy work pulling the loaded sled. [Note by V. 

 Stefansson.] 



