748 APPENDIX 



on schooner Ruby) ; and Natkusiak. The party remaining at Cape 

 Barrow consisted of four men, Chipman, Cox, O'Neill and myself, with 

 one 20-foot wooden gasoline launch with 7-horsepower Gray motor, 

 and the skin umiak with Evinrude motor. 



Cox and O'Neill, with their Eskimo assistants, had left Bernard 

 Harbor June 9, hauling the skin umiak on a boat-sled, and crossed 

 Coronation Gulf direct from Cape Krusenstern to the mouth of the 

 Tree River (Port Epworth). The season was much further advanced 

 around Tree River than it was at Bernard Harbor and the ice was 

 soon cut away around the mouth of the river. Large quantities of fish 

 were caught after the opening of the bay, and in addition to what were 

 used by the party and their large bunch of dogs, over 500 pounds 

 were dried, baled and put en cache on the island at the mouth of the 

 harbor for autumn use. Wolverines are surprisingly abundant on the 

 coast in this region, and unless provisions and stores are cached on 

 islands they are apt to suffer from their ravages. [Polar bears are rare 

 or absent.] 



Tree River was explored for some distance inland on a packing 

 expedition in July. Like all the other streams in this region (in the 

 granite area) it has rapids, cascades, and falls a few miles from its 

 mouth. It abounds in fish and several families of Eskimos usually spend 

 the summer at the first cascade, catching fish by spear, hook, and rak- 

 ing with a sort of double gaff-hook. Salmon trout and two species of 

 white-fish are largely caught in the rivers, while big lake trout are 

 found in nearly every lake of any size. The country a little back from 

 the mouth of Tree River is dotted with innumerable clear lakes, basins 

 in the granite, and the vegetation, particularly in flowering plants, is 

 richer than the average. A good collection of plants was made. 



Tree River has two large branches, one of them said to rise near the 

 Coppermine. This western branch of Tree River is said to have spruce 

 trees near its source. The scenery around Port Epworth is striking, 

 vertical cliffs of dark-colored diabase, with long talus slopes, rising to 

 a height of 600 feet above sea-level on either side of the harbor. About 

 five miles south of the mouth of Tree River a ridge of rounded granite 

 mountains runs to the south and east side of the river, the highest 

 peak visible, about ten miles back from the entrance of the harbor, 

 being 1,090 feet above sea-level. About half a mile east of the mouth 

 of Tree River, there are small crevices or pockets in the granite which 

 are filled with the soft potstone (a talc chlorite schist), much used by 

 the Eskimos of this region for making the blubber-lamps which are 

 universally used by them, and also for making stone cooking pots. 

 The use of the cumbersome, heavy and fragile stone pots, however, is 

 rapidly declining, owing to the much greater convenience of tin, iron, 

 and copper-ware which are being introduced in trade. There is no 

 known potstone quarry west of Tree River, and most of the stone 

 utensils come from there although the Eskimos informed us that there 



